The Nigerian Senate has finally passed the long-awaited 2018 Appropriation Bill and increased theoil benchmark from$45to$51.

The budget, which was pegged at N8.6 trillion by President Buhari, was increased to N9.1 trillion after the National Assembly’s deliberations.

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari laid the budget in November last year during a joint session of the Assembly.

As presented by the Chairman on Appropriations, Danjuma Goje, the following were maintained; the crude oil production at 2.3mbp/d and the exchange rate at N350/$1.

The following were also recommended and approved, N530 billion for statutory transfers, N 2.2 trillion for debt service, N190 billion for sinking funds to aid maturing loans, N3.5 trillion for recurrent non-debt expenditure and N2.8 trillion for development fund for Capital expenditure. The budget is expected to run for 12 calendar months.