Senate to receive budget panel report January 2025

ABUJA, Nigeria  — The Senate Appropriations Committee has on Monday scheduled the presentation of the 2025 Budget report for Friday, January 31, 2025.

This development followed the timetable of the National Assembly’s for the defence and scrutiny of the proposed budget.

At the budget defence, various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies are expected to appear before lawmakers to give an overview of their 2024 spending and justify their revenue projections for 2025.

In a memo on Sunday, “The Senate committees on Appropriations and Finance will on Friday, January 7, by 2 pm, meet with the  Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun; the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, and the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation.

“Subsequently, joint budget defence sessions between the Appropriations Sub-committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives and the relevant Ministries, Departments, and Agencies will commence on Wednesday, January 8, 2025.

“These sessions are expected to run until Wednesday, January 15, 2025.

“2025 Budget: Laying/Presentation of the Report by the Appropriations Committee will be on Friday 31st January 2025.”

On Thursday, December 19, the Senate passed the N49.7tn ‘restoration’ budget for a second reading.

The budget was passed and referred to the Committee on Appropriations after being put to a voice vote by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, who presided over the session.

The Committee on Appropriations is chaired by Senator Solomon Adeola.

President Bola Tinubu had on December 18 presented the 2025 budget of restoration to a joint session of the National Assembly, targeting peace and prosperity with a revenue projection of N34.82tn to fund the aggregate expenditure of N47.9tn.

Tinubu commended the resilience of Nigerians amid growing economic indices.

In the proposed budget, which has a deficit of N13.0tn, Tinubu earmarked N4.91tn for defence and security, N4.06tn for infrastructure, N3.5tn for education, and N2.48tn for health.

The president, in his budget speech, also disclosed that N15.81tn is allocated for debt servicing, with salient parameters including 2.06 million barrels of oil production per day, an exchange rate of N1,500 to a dollar, and an inflation rate of 15%, down from the current 34.6%.