Nigeria's National Assembly passed a final version of the 2008 budget on Wednesday that foresees a 21 percent hike in proposed expenditure and an even sharper increase on what the government actually spent last year.
The Senate and House of Representatives, which had passed slightly different versions of the budget last week, reconciled their figures and adopted the 2.89 trillion naira total spending proposed by the upper chamber.
The harmonised bill will now be sent to President Umaru Yar'Adua for final approval. He had originally proposed an annual spending figure of 2.45 trillion naira.
To increase the amount of money available to be spent in this year's budget, the lawmakers revised upwards the benchmark oil price to $59 per barrel from $53.83 in the executive's original bill.
The Senate had said the additional spending was "committed to the provision of water, roads, power, enhancement of social services such as education and healthcare delivery".
Although the budjet has not been approved by Yar'Adua, a 20% increase in spending is quite signifigant. The addition is supposed to help provide more quality public goods and services, and the Nigerian people may appriciate the extra spending. Hopefully, this new budjet, and the higher oil prices from Nigeria do result in added stability and satisfaction with the Nigerian Government.
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