President Tinubu Requests N6.2 Trillion Increase to 2024 Budget.

Akpabio read the letter and then voiced his support for Monguno's admittance as the Senate's Chief Whip. Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu has urged the national assembly to add N6.2 trillion to the 2024 appropriations act. Tinubu made his plea in a letter that Senate President Godswill Akpabio read aloud on Wednesday on the higher legislative body's floor.

This implies that the N26.7 trillion inaugural budget Tinubu signed into law on January 1st, 2024, will now be enhanced to N34.9 trillion. In light of this, President Tinubu is requesting that the budget be amended to allocate N3.2 trillion for infrastructure projects and N3 trillion for ongoing expenses.

“Under section 58 (2) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, I forward herewith the above-named bills for consideration and passage by the senate. The appropriation act amendment bill seeks to amend the principal act to provide the sum of N3,200,000,000,000 for Renewed Hope Infrastructure Projects and other critical infrastructure projects to be undertaken across the country and the sum of N3,000,000,000,000 to meet further recurrent expenditure requirements necessary for the proper operation of the federal government. They shall be funded by accruing to the federal government of Nigeria.”

Additionally, Tinubu requested that the Finance Act of 2023 be amended to tax bank windfalls resulting from "foreign exchange gains" by the national legislature. “Furthermore, the proposed amendments to the Finance Acts 2023 are required to a one-time windfall tax on the foreign exchange gains realized by banks in their 2023 financial statements to fund capital infrastructure development, education, and healthcare as well as welfare initiatives all of which are components of the Renewed Hope Agenda,” he said.

Remember that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ordered banks to cease using their gains from the naira's revaluation to support operations or pay dividends on September 12, 2023. The move coincides with the central bank's decision to weaken the naira in June of last year and January of 2024 in order to address the foreign exchange problem. The strategy has the potential to greatly boost the naira value of banks' foreign currency (FCY) holdings and liabilities, which puts them in a position to profit, according to the CBN's financial analysis of the foreign exchange, or FX, regime change.

In the meantime, BudgIT had previously alerted people about Tinubu's government's intention to operate four concurrent budgets. According to BudgIT, the circumstances would seriously undermine the legitimacy of the budget.