Nigeria's President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is current chair of the West African bloc ECOWAS
AFP

President Bola Tinubu signed the 2024 Appropriation Bill into law on Monday, raising the budget size by N1.2 trillion to N28.7 trillion, with a key focus on defense and internal security, job creation and macro-economic stability.

The budget's other top priorities include an improved investment environment, human capital development, poverty reduction and social security.

The president assured Nigerians that the 2024 budget will be efficiently pursued and vigorously monitored.

"All the institutional mechanisms shall be held to account in ensuring diligent implementation," he said, according to an official statement shared on X.

Tinubu said all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) have been directed to provide monthly budget performance reports to the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.

The president will chair periodic economic coordination council meetings, while Wale Edun, minister of Finance and coordinating minister of the economy, will hold reviews regularly with the economic management team.

The National Assembly's budget allocation also saw an increase of 74.23% to N344.85 billion from the initial allocation of N197.93 billion, Punch reported.

The rise in funding for the Senate and House of Representatives comes amid a cost-of-living crisis in the nation.

The president said that statutory transfer to the judiciary was increased to N342 billion from N165 billion. Some of the key estimates are capital expenditure (N10 trillion), recurrent expenditure (N8.8 trillion), debt service (N8.2 trillion) and statutory transfers (N1.7 trillion).

The federal government has also allocated N150 billion for the poverty alleviation program. The allocated amount will be spent on four basic areas – macroeconomic stability, industrialization, structural policies/institutional reforms and redistributive policies/programs.

Godswill Akpabio, president of the Senate, and Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the House of Representatives, alongside other senior government officials, were present at the signing ceremony.

In November , Tinubu presented the budget before the National Assembly, focusing on security, health and infrastructure projects. A sum of N3.25 trillion, representing a 46.39% increase from the previous year, was earmarked for defense and internal security.