The House of Representatives has approved President Bola Tinubu’s request to borrow ₦1.15tn to finance the 2025 budget deficit arising from the recent increase in the national budget size beyond earlier approved revenue and borrowing projections.
The approval followed the consideration and adoption of the report of the House Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt Management during plenary on Wednesday.
Presenting the report, the Committee Chairman, Abubakar Nalaraba (APC, Nasarawa), urged the House in the Committee of Supply to approve “The sum of ₦1.15tn as a borrowing programme in 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 borrowing plans.”
Tinubu had earlier made the request in a letter addressed to the Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas, and read on the floor last week by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, who presided in the Speaker’s absence.
The president, in the letter, explained that the additional borrowing was necessary to balance the 2025 budget in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), 2007.
“I write to kindly request the approval of the National Assembly to establish a ₦1.15tn borrowing programme in the domestic debt market to close the unfunded deficit gap created by the increase in the budget size,” Tinubu stated.
He noted that the National Assembly had passed a ₦59.99tn budget, an upward review of ₦5.25tn from the ₦54.74tn proposal initially submitted by the executive, thereby widening the deficit to ₦14.10tn.
