President Muhammadu Buhari Seeks NASS Approval For N1trn Emergency Funding

President Muhammadu Buhari has written a letter to the two chambers of the National Assembly seeking approval for the advance of N1 trillion from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s” Ways and Means.

The president in the letter he sent yesterday to the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives said the Ways and Means Advances by the axe bank to the federal government has been a funding option to cater for short-term or emergency finance to fund delayed government expected cash receipt of fiscal deficit.

He said the Ways and Means balances as of 19th December, 2022, is N23.719 trillion.

The president said he had approved the securitisation of the Ways and Means balances along the following terms: amount, N23,719,703,774,306.90, with a tenure of 40 years; moratorium on principal repayment, three years and pricing interest rate of nine per cent.

“Your concurrence and approval are sought to allow for the implementation of the same,” Buhari said.

For expeditious consideration, the Senate President Ahmad Lawan forwarded the request to the Senate Committee on Finance for report consideration and passage in plenary Thursday.

He said the request and the N819.5billion supplementary budget will be considered required passage in plenary Thursday along with the N20.51 trillion 2023 appropriation bill and other critical ones.

“We are referring these letters to our committees on Appropriation, Finance, works, water resources and Agriculture today.

“They have to work on it and ensure that we follow the due processes. In that respect, the minister of finance, the CBN, ministers of agriculture, water resources and works to be invited and make themselves available for this process and to ensure that we get the right information between today and tomorrow.

“Tomorrow (Thursday) by the grace of God , will be the last legislative day for the 9th senate this year. It will be quite busy for us because we have to receive the report of the 2023 Appropriation Bill from our committee on Appropriations.

“We will also receive a report on the Finance Bill, 2022 from our committee on Finance. We will also receive the report from the appropriation committee on the two reports that I have just read.

“Also, the committee on power will be bringing the report on power, so it’s going to be very busy for us. So, we may have to stay here for many hours in order to pass or consider the report”, he said.

Also yesterday, Buhari sent a supplementary budget  of N819 billion for 2022 to the National Assembly.

In the letter to the House read by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, during plenary, the president said supplementary would be financed through additional domestic borrowings.

This would raise the budget deficit for 2022 to N8.17 trillion and deficit GDP ratio to 4.43 percent.

Buhari wrote that the year 2022 has witnessed the worst flood incidents in recent history in the country which has caused massive destruction of farmlands at the point already close to the harvest season.

This, he said, may compound the situation of food security and nutrition in this country.

He said the flood also devastated the road infrastructure across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and it affected several sections of major roads and bridges nationwide that are critical to movement of goods and services.

He said the water sector was also affected by the flood and there is the need to complete some ongoing critical projects that have achieved about 85 percent completion.

He said the nine critical projects proposed in the sector cuts across water supply, dam projects and irrigation projects nationwide.

“I have therefore approved the supplementary 2022 Appropriation of N819, 000, 536, 937, all of which are capital expenditure,” the President said.

The Speaker referred it to the Committee on Appropriation for further legislative action.

The House also considered and passed the Report of the Committee on Power on the issue from the Statutory Revenue Fund of the Federal Government Power Company Limited, the total sum of N95, 261, 665, 187.

This followed the presentation of the report by the Chairman of the Committee on Power, Hon. Magaji Da’u Aliyu.

Aliyu said, “That the House do consider the Report of the Committee on Power on the issue from the Statutory Revenue Fund of the Federal Government Power Company Limited, the total sum of N95, 261, 665, 187.00  is for total expenditure, of which the sum of ₦2, 823, 904, 716  is for personnel costs, while the sum of N91, 569, 960, 000  is Capital Expenditure for the year ending 31 December 2022.”