Lucky Obukohwo Reporting
In order to bridge the deficit gap in the N59.9 trillion 2025 budget approved, President Bola Tinubu has written to the Senate, seeking for an approval for a new loan of N1.150 trillion from the Domestic Debt Market.
This was contained in a letter forwarded to the Senate and read at plenary by Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
He said that the deficit was due to an increase of N5.25 trillion to the N49.74 trillion 2025 budgetary proposal presented to the National Assembly in December last year, leading to an unfunded deficit of N1.947 trillion.
“I write to kindly request for the approval of the National Assembly to borrow N1,150,000,000 trillion from the Domestic Debt Market to close the unfunded deficit gap created by the increase in the budget size over and above the prior approved revenue and bordering plans.
“This request is pursuant to the provisions of Section 44, subsection 1 & 2 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) of 2007, which requires the approval of the National Assembly for all new borrowings by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“The distinguished President of the Senate may wish to note that the National Assembly passed a budget of $59.9 trillion, an increase of $5.25 trillion from the N49.74 trillion budget proposal by the executive.
“This increase created a budget deficit of N14 trillion. However, the proposed borrowing approved in the budget was N12.95 trillion, which caused an unfunded deficit of N1.1 trillion. It is, therefore, necessary to increase the domestic bordering limit in the 2025 budget by N1.147 trillion to close this gap.
“Based on the foregoing, I wish to request for the approval of the Senate for the establishment of a N1,150,000,000 trillion borrowing programme in the Domestic Debt Market to close the unfunded 2025 budget deficit”, the statement read that in parts.
The request was referred to its committee on local and foreign debts, with a report due to one week.