As passed in the 2021 Appropriation Bill by the Senate on Monday, the federal government will spend over about a quarter of the budget on debt servicing.

The 2021 budget estimate pegged at N13.5trillion became the highest in the country’s history.

The bill was read for the third time on Monday at a special plenary session of the Senate and passed. The plenary session was set specially for the bill.

Senate President Ahmad Lawan went ahead to congratulate the lawmakers for their efforts to ensure that the bill was passed before the holidays and ahead of the new year.

“For Nigerians, this Budget that has been passed is to ensure that our economy is supported fully through public expenditure,” he said.

President Buhari had presented a budget estimate of N13.08 trillion in October but the Senate jerked it up to N13.6 trillion, an increment of about N505 billion.

The budget was benchmarked against Brent crude at $40 per barrel.

In the budget, N3.324trillion has been set aside for debt servicing, N4.1trillion for capital expenditure, N5.6 trillion for recurrent spending, and N496 billion for statutory transfers.

Last week, Mr. Lawan had announced during plenary that the delay in the passage of the budget was to allow the Appropriation Committee include a request for additional expenditures from the executive arm of government.