The Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, Abubakar Bichi, has said that the 2025 budget was increased by #700 billion because of the U.S withdrawal health support and the need to fund critical infrastructural project across the country
In a statement signed by Bichi, he stated that the government of the United States recently hated it’s health assistance to several countries which does not exclude Nigeria, this made the government of Nigeria to allocate additional resources to the health sector
According to Appropriation Chairman, the request of $300 million was proactively made by the president to support healthcare programs like tuberculosis, HIV, malaria and polio
Bichi further clarified that an executive proposal outlined an estimate of ₦340 billion for health and other priority sectors. “When combined, this totals around ₦640 billion,” he noted.
Additionally, several government agencies, including INEC, NFYU, DSS, and others, submitted requests, further raising the budget increase to ₦700 billion.
Bichi emphasized that the budget expansion would also help address Nigeria’s capital expenditure deficit, which currently stands at ₦23 trillion.
Addressing concerns about funding of the increased budget, Bichi reassured Nigerians that the government had carefully assessed revenue sources before approving the budget increase.
“Before making this decision, we have met with the Ministry of Finance, the Nigerian Customs Service, and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). They assured us that they could generate enough revenue to support the budget expansion,” he stated.
