The Nigerian senate passed the nation’s 2015 budget on Tuesday assuming a lower oil price benchmark of $53 per barrel, compared with last year’s $77.5, amidst weaker global crude prices.
The Senate is currently in its lame duck period as it has just a month before it tenure ends.
Lawmakers in Nigeria had in February approved an oil price benchmark of $52 per barrel for the draft budget framework, down from an initial $78 proposed by the finance ministry in September after crude prices plunged.
The budget also made no provision for payments for fuel subsidies, chairman joint-senate committee on appropriation and finance, Mohammed Maccido told lawmakers, after the government had in November proposed to cut it by half to 458.6 billion naira for 2015.
The senatepassed a 4.49 trillion naira ($23 billion) budget, which is 3.2 percent lower than last year’s and is also based on an exchange rate assumption of 190 naira to the dollar.
Oil production for the 2015 budget was estimated at 2.278 million barrels per day.
The budget comprised of 2.6 trillion naira in recurrent expenditure and 556.9 billion naira for capital projects. It set aside 953.6 billion naira for debt service.
The house of reps had last week passed a budget of N4.493tn
