Nigeria has risen its planned spending for this year to around
N4.3 trillion ($30 billion) from an initial N4.079 trillion proposal, outgoing
finance minister Mansur Muhtar said on Thursday.
“The federal government made some additional submissions into
the budget which were priority areas … It’s now a little above N4.3
trillion,” he said, adding that the final figure would come from parliament,
which is still debating the plans.
The government made the budget additions before the cabinet was
dissolved on Wednesday by Acting President Goodluck, Jonathan in a further move
to assert his authority in the absence of the ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua.
A supplementary 2009 budget, which runs to the end of March, has
allowed Nigeria to maintain government spending while the 2010 budget is
debated, but this year’s spending plans must be passed and signed into law by
the end of the month.
The original N4.079 trillion budget for this year, sent to
parliament in November by Yar’Adua, would have pushed sub-Saharan Africa’s
second biggest economy to a deficit of 4.79 percent of gross domestic product.
Mr. Yar’Adua left Nigeria in November for three months of medical care in
Saudi Arabia, and Mr. Jonathan assumed full executive powers just over a month
ago to end paralysis in government.
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