TheCable

The 2022 budget proposal has passed the second reading in the senate.

The upper legislative chamber passed the appropriation bill on Wednesday after debating its general principles for two days.

Contributing to the debate, Enyinnaya Abaribe, senate minority leader, said the federal government needs to curb what he described as a “borrowing spree”.

The minority leader said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should stick to its mandate of managing the country’s economy.

“We must think about this borrowing spree as we go ahead,” he said.

“The CBN is dealing with the anchor borrowers programme, fertiliser initiative, this is wrong. This is not the way to run the economy.”

A number of senators called on the federal government to undertake more infrastructural projects across the country.

Speaking at the end of the debate on the budget, Senate President Ahmad Lawan said loans are not bad as long as they are used for what they are earmarked for.

“As long as we ensure that what is borrowed is used capitally for infrastructural development,” Lawan said.

The senate president said the national assembly should be able to pass the budget before December.

Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari had presented an appropriation bill of N16.39 trillion to a joint session of the national assembly.

A breakdown of the budget shows that N768.28 billion was earmarked for statutory transfers, N6.83 trillion for non-debt recurrent costs, N792.39 billion for overhead costs, and N5.35 trillion for capital expenditure.

“We expect the total fiscal operations of the federal government to result in a deficit of N6.26 trillion,” Buhari had said.