…amend CBN Act increasing Ways & Means to 10%
By Gloria Ikibah
The House of Representatives has repealed and enacted the Appropriation Act, 2024 of N35.05 trillion to address some illegal issues inherent in the extant law on Wednesday at an emergency plenary session.
Naijablitznews.com reports that out of the total sum N1.74 trillion is for Statutory Transfers, N8.27 trillion for Debt Service, N11.26 trillion for Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure while the sum of N13.77 trillion is for contribution to the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure.
This was sequel to the passage for third term of a “Bill for an Act to Repeal the Appropriation Act, 2024 and Enact the Appropriation Act 2024 to Authorise the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation the total sum of N35,055,536,770,218,” at plenary on Wednesday.
Earlier at plenary, the House rescinded the decision on the Long Title, Explanatory Memorandum and clauses 13 and 14 of the Appropriation Bill passed last Tuesday and commit same provisions to the Committee of Supply for reconsideration.
That also was sequel to the adoption of a motion by the Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Rep. Francis Waive (APC, Delta).
Debating the motion, Rep. Waive explained that the Appropriations Act (Amendment) Bill, 2024 was passed on Tuesday 23 July, 2024, and in the cause of cleaning the Bill, the Directorate of Legal Services observed some legal issues that require reconsideration.
According to him, Clauses 13 and 14 of the Bill as well as the long title and Explanatory Memorandum need to be amended to reflect the intent of the Appropriation Act.
Waive emphasised the need to rescind the House decision on the Long Title, Explanatory Memorandum and Clauses 13 and 14 of the Bill.
Also at plenary, the House passed a bill seeking to increase the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) total advances to the Federal Government from five per cent to a Maximum of 10 percent.
The piece of legislation is Title; ” A Bill for an Act to Amend the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, to increase the Central Bank of Nigeria’s total advances to the Federal Government from five per cent to a Maximum of Fifteen per cent and for Related Matters.”
However, during consideration at the Committee of the Whole some lawmakers raised objections to percentage and it was pruned down to 10 percent unlike the 15 percent proposed.
Ways and Means is the money that the Central Bank of Nigeria lends to the Federal Government in the meantime to augment spending based on the time the revenue is generated.