(Ecofin Agency) - Nigerian parliament approved an increase of budget for 2018 fiscal year, Bloomberg reports stressing that this decision was spurred by an increase in revenues.

From an initial amount of $23.8 billion announced by President Muhammadu Buhari in November 2017, Nigerian lawmakers set total government spending at $25.2 billion. This represents an increase by nearly 6%.

A document released yesterday May 15 by the House of Representatives shows that $9.7 billion should be used for recurrent expenditures while $7.7 billion will be used for capital spending and $6.1 billion for debt servicing. The balance will serve other spendings.

An increase in oil exports revenues (as oil price rose in recent months) would help achieve the new spending targets.For the record, President Buhari has earlier indicated that the government plans to invest part of the budget in infrastructure in order to boost the economy which is still struggling to recover from years of recession.

Let’s note that while IMF forecasts an economic growth of 2.1% for Africa's largest oil producers, President Buhari expects a 3.5% growth for this year.          

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou