Insecurity: FG Approves N770.60b Supplementary Budget For Military; N83.56b for 30m COVID-19 Vaccines
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved the sum of N895.8 billion draft 2021 supplementary budget for the procurement of equipment for the military and COVID-19 vaccines.
The minister of finance, Zainab Ahmed, made this known to State House correspondents after the virtual federal executive council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Ahmed said the supplementary budget of N895.8 billion comprises an aggregate sum of N770.60 billion to further enhance the capacity of the defence and the security agencies to address current and emerging security challenges in our country.
She said a total of N83.56 billion expenditure is set aside in the budget for COVID-19 vaccine programme, covering 30 million vaccines from Johnson and Johnson and the logistics costs related to the deployment of the vaccines.
Similarly, it has N40billion provision to take care of allowances of in the health and education sectors and other wage-related issues.
There is also N1.69 billion for the Nigeria Comprehensive AIDS Programme.
The minister maintained that government will draw from N39.58 billion to finance the supplementary budget just as it will withdraw N135 billion from special levy accounts for the same purpose.
She said, “In line with this approval, we have also been given approval to draw down on some existing World Bank loans totaling about N39.58 billion as part of the financing source for this supplementary budget.
“We will be working with the World Bank to restructure some of the existing facilities to realise this N39.58 billion.
“We’ve also been given approval to withdraw N135 billion from some special reserve levy accounts to part-fund this supplementary budget, but specifically related to COVID-19 vaccine, salaries and other health-related expenditure as well as the recurrent component of the Defence and Security expenditures.
“Finally, this approval also contains an approval to borrow the sum of 722.53 billion for security expenditures and these are the capital components of the security expenditure in the absence of any other additional supplementary sources of borrowing. ”The federal government is set on another borrowing move as it obtained the Federal Executive Council’s approval to borrow the sum of 722.53 billion from both the domestic and international capital markets.
Meanwhile, the Debt Management Office (DMO) has put Nigeria’s total public debt stock at N33 trillion by March 31, 2021, indicating an increase of N32.2 trillion compared to the position at the last quarter of 2020,
The latest report released by the DMO yesterday showed that the total public debt stock, which comprises the debt stock of the federal government of Nigeria, 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), stood at N33.107 trillion or $87.239 billion.
The debt stock also includes promissory notes in the sum of N940.220 billion issued to settle the inherited arrears of the federal government to state governments, oil marketing companies, exporters and local contractors.
Compared to the total public debt stock of N32.916 trillion as of December 31, 2020, the increase in the debt stock was marginal at 0.58 per cent.
Further analysis of the public debt shows that the increase was in the domestic debt stock, which grew by 2.11 per cent from N20.21 trillion in December 2020 to N20.637 trillion as of March 31, 2021
The federal government’s share of the domestic debt includes FGN Bonds, Sukuk and Green Bonds used to finance infrastructure and other capital projects as well as the N940.220 billion promissory notes.
External debt stock declined from $33.348 billion as of December 31, 2020 to $32.86 billion due to the redemption by Nigeria of the $500 million Eurobond in January 2021, the debt office said.
