Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, has revealed that the Federal Government budgeted N60 billion for the suspended students loan.
The minister made the disclosure during an interaction with journalists in Abuja on Thursday.
He said that the scheme is a laudable innovation by President Bola Tinubu to aid Nigerians and the economy at large, according to ThisDay.
He further clarified that contrary to ongoing narratives on the alleged padding of the 2024 appropriation, there were no infractions in the making of the budget.
He insisted that the National Assembly had the last word on issues of appropriation given its oversight powers over public institutions.
Bagudu stated that the National Assembly had the power to either add or subtract any item from the budget without breaching any provision of the Appropriation Act.
He said some of the controversial items that were being regarded as padding had to do with constituency allocations, which were lawful, as well as issues around the foreign exchange that was adjusted to reflect current realities.
Bagudu said, “When people talk about padding, I think that the word has been narrowed to a negative form, whereas in reality, there can be no appropriation without either addition or subtraction of a sum, or agreeing to what was presented, or addition of a new project.
“Following the presentation of the budget to the National Assembly, there have been some issues; the presidency issued a statement, which we are fully in agreement with, about the size of the budget and where the mistake is coming from.”
He continued, “Equally, we have provided N50 billion, in addition to what has been provided in the supplementary budget for the student loans so that our students who are otherwise in need of support but cannot access it, can have one or two student loans.
“Yes, there was N10 billion provision in the supplementary budget. So, that now means for the student loan, we have N60 billion.”
