By Fatimah Yusuf
The Senate has granted approval for President Bola Tinubu’s request to raise N1.15 trillion from the domestic debt market to finance the unfunded portion of the 2025 budget.
The approval came after lawmakers adopted the report of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debt during plenary on Wednesday.
According to the committee’s report, the 2025 Appropriation Act provides for a total expenditure of N59.99 trillion — an increase of N5.25 trillion over the N54.74 trillion initially proposed by the Executive.
This expansion, the report noted, created a total budget deficit of N14.10 trillion, out of which N12.95 trillion had already been approved for borrowing, leaving an unfunded gap of N1.15 trillion (N1,147,462,863,321).
