The Senate at an emergency session on Saturday approved a seven month extension in the implementation of the N819billion 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act.
The Senate said the extension of time of implementation till December 31, 2023 became necessary to enable the Federal Government fund the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act, which is meant to construct critical infrastructure destroyed by the 2022 flood episode.
Also on Saturday, the Red Chamber increased the amount the Central Bank of Nigeria can loan to the Federal Government through Ways and Means Advances from 5 per cent to 15 per cent representing 200 per cent upward review.
This resolution followed the amendment of Section 38 of the CBN Act which empowers the apex bank to grant such advances by the Senate during its emergency session.
The section reads: “Notwithstanding the provisions of the section 34(d) of this Act, the Bank (CBN) may grant temporary advances to the Federal Government in respect of temporary deficiency of budget revenue at such rate as the Bank may determine. The total amount of such advances outstanding shall not at any time exceed five (5) per cent of the previous year’s actual revenue of the Federal Government.”
The National Assembly had in December 2022 approved a supplementary appropriation bill in the sum of N819,536,937,813.00.
The N819billion was allocated as follows: Agriculture – N69 billion, Works – N704 billion, FCTA – N30 billion and Water Resources – N15.5 billion.
However, the implementation of the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act was put on hold following the refusal of the Senate to approve a request by the federal government to borrow the sum of N1trillion from the CBN through Ways and Means Advances and the securitization and restructuring of the N22.7trillion already obtained from the CBN by the Federal Government through its Ways and Means Advances.
The Senate, on May 4, 2023, approved the request of President Muhammadu Buhari to restructure the N22.7 trillion loans that the CBN advanced to the federal government under its Ways and Means policy.
The Ways and Means provision allows the government to borrow from the apex bank if it needs short-term or emergency finance to fund delayed government expected cash receipts of fiscal deficits.
The Senate Leader Ibrahim Gobir (APC – Sokoto East) moved the motions for the Senate to suspend its rules and grant the two Bills accelerated consideration and passage.
The two Bills include “A Bill for an Act to amend the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act and for other matters connected therewith, 2023” and “A Bill for an Act to amend the Central Bank of Nigeria Act C4 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 and for other matters connected thereto, 2023.”
In his first lead debate, Gobir said: “Permit me to lead the Debate on this very important Bills which seeks to amend the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act to extend the implementation year of from the 30th June 2023 to 31st December 2023 respectively.
The Bill was read for the first time today Wednesday, 24 May, 2023. You would recall that the National Assembly extended the implementation of the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act from 31st December 2022 to 31st March, 2023.
“This was to allow full implementation of the budget, especially in light of the 2022 Supplementary budget approved in December 2022 the extension had allowed MDA’s to utilize a large proportion of funds released to them.
“However, significant amounts of funds remain with MDAs and will require a further extension to be fully expended.
“Given the critical importance of some key projects nearing completion, requesting a further extension of the expiration clause in 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Bill and the Long Title and Explanatory Memorandum is expedient to avoid compounding the problem of abandoned projects, given that some of the projects were not provided for in the 2023 Budget.
“I therefore urge my colleagues to give their full support to this Bill to allow full utilization of the Capital releases in order to help reflate the economy while I move that the two bills be referred to the committee of the whole for clause by clause consideration.”
