The Senate finally passed the revised 2020 budget of N10.81tn on Thursday.
However, experts expressed doubt in the capacity of the government to raise funds and to implement the budget.
The budget was passed at the Senate plenary shortly after the same exercise was carried out at the Committee of Supplies.
The approval followed the consideration of the report of the Senator Barau Jibri-led Committee on Appropriation.
The Senate, just like the House of Representatives, increased the budget size of N10.5tn presented to it by the executive by about N310bn.
However, the Senate reconvened barely two hours after the approval on Thursday to add N5bn to the budget.
The N5bn addition was to accommodate differential in the crude oil benchmark, which the parliament raised to $28 per barrel from the $25 proposed by the executive.
The amount was added to the statutory transfers for the benefit of some agencies that were being funded directly with the daily oil sales.
The development increased the statutory transfers from N422bn earlier passed to N427bn.
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The sum of N500bn was also passed in the budget as an intervention fund for COVID-19, out of which N186bn was earmarked for the health sector.
The Senate increased the statutory transfers proposed by the executive from N398.5bn to N422.7bn.
The recurrent expenditure was increased from N4.928tn to N4.942tn; capital expenditure from N2.230tn to N2.488tn.
Senate retains debt servicing figure at N2.951tn
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, in his remarks after the budget was passed, charged the Senate committees to ensure strict oversight of projects contained in the 2020 budget.
He stressed that the need to get value for money was one way of ensuring that Nigerians were impacted positively through government interventions and programmes.
He said, “For us, this is one way of ensuring that Nigerians feel the presence of government through the various interventions, the programmes and projects.
“We have done this, but we have other things waiting for us in relation to this. We are supposed to ensure that we carry out oversight function on these projects, and more especially when we have to borrow money to fund some of these projects, it is very crucial that we ensure there is value for money.
“Every project that is mentioned here should be implemented appropriately and accordingly. So, all our standing committees should ensure that we continue to carry out our oversight function.”
Economic experts, who spoke with our correspondents in separate interviews, said since the budget deficit would be financed largely through borrowings, the Federal Government should focus more on increasing the country’s productive capacity.
“I hope the borrowing will be used to finance infrastructure and not recurrent expenditure. There is a problem if it is used for recurrent expenditure,” a former Director-General, West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management, Prof. Akpan Ekpo, said.
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Ekpo said the government should reduce the cost of governance drastically, rather than cutting capital expenditure.
“My worry is that the amount earmarked for servicing debts is still very high,” he added.
The Chief Executive Officer, Cowry Assets Management Limited, Mr Johnson Chukwu, expressed concern that the government might not achieve the revenue projections in the revised budget.
He said given the crude oil production cut deal by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, the Federal Government’s projected oil revenue might not be achieved, adding that other revenue sources would also suffer declines.
A former President, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, Dr Sam Nzekwa, said he was not optimistic about the budget because budgets that were implemented in the past when the economy was still quite buoyant were not fully implemented.
He said, “Budget is subject to availability of funds and in most cases, we have not actually implemented the budget 100 per cent; you will see 40 or 50 per cent.
“Now that we have COVID-19, how do we now get money to do the budget; now we are talking of borrowing more.”
He added that more money should have gone to health, education and agriculture.