By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the Senate to approve N895,842,465,917 billion as supplementary budget for 2021 to fund health care, capital projects, and combat insurgency.
His letter on the request written to Senate President Ahmad Lawan on June 15 was read out at plenary on Tuesday.
He explained that the money will fund the treatment of 50,000 patients under the Nigeria Comprehensive AIDS Programme and procure additional equipment to tackle insecurity.
“It has become necessary to prepare the 2021 Supplementary Appropriation Bill considering the urgent need to make provision for procurement and administration of COVlD-19 vaccines,” the letter said.
“The availability of COVlD-19 vaccines and the procurement terms were still uncertain as at the time of finalising the 2021 budget. Hence, there was no provision in the 2021 Appropriation Act for the procurement and administration of COVID-19 vaccines.”
Buhari said the Ministry of Health and the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) have developed a Covid-19 vaccine scheme to vaccinate 70 per cent of eligible Nigerians between 2021 and 2022.
He added that security and law enforcement agencies urgently need to procure additional equipment and other resources in response to the prevalent security challenges across the country.
According to him, the Ministry of Defence has “carefully scrutinised” the procurement needs the military authorities claim to represent the minimum to secure the country and address current external and internal security challenges.
Buhari said new funds are also required to meet commitment to treat additional 50,000 patients under the Nigeria Comprehensive AIDS Program in States (NCAPS), as the amount provisioned in the 2021 Appropriation Bill for this purpose was “inexplicably cut” by the National Assembly (NASS).
To “address the urgent problem of oxygen availability in the country and avoid the potential loss of lives, provision was made for the procurement and installation of new oxygen plants nationwide and repairs of oxygen plants in FCT hospitals.
“It is also necessary to provide additional funds for Public Service wage Adjustment to cater for sundry wage-related issues in the health and other sectors, which if not resolved can add to the prevalent sense of instability in the polity.
From the N895, 842, 465, 917 requested, N45.63 billion will fund the N83.56 billion required for the vaccine programme by “drawing on existing World Bank loans (which would be restructured) as well as Other Grants totalling US$113.22 million.”
The balance N37.93 billion required for the vaccine, salaries and other health-related expenditures totalling N41.69 billion and the N48.20 billion recurrent component of defence/security expenditure will be funded “by drawing N135 billion from some Special Reserve/Levy Accounts” which will be captured in federal revenue.
“We propose to fund the balance of N722.40 billion for capital expenditure on defence/security and capital supplementation from new borrowings, in the absence of any supplementary revenue sources.
“Understandably, needs currently abound in many other sectors. However, we have limited the supplementary budget proposal to just these critical and emergency areas of need due to our severe fiscal constraints.
“All other needs would be deferred to the 2022 budget, which we plan to present in September of this years.”