The President Bola Tinubu’s proposal for a change to the 2022 Palliatives Act has been granted by the House of Representatives.

The clearance came after Tinubu asked for N500 billion to provide palliatives to Nigerians in order to lessen the suffering brought on by the elimination of subsidies.

During Wednesday’s plenary, the amendment was approved on the first, second, and third readings.

However, the President’s request was approved by the House on Thursday after contributions from House members.

The president expressed his hope that the parliamentarians will “expeditiously” consider his request.

“I write to the house of reps to approve the amendment of the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act in accordance to the attached,” the letter’s opening line reads.

“The request has become essential in order to, among other things, source the money required to give a palliative to lessen the impact on Nigerians of the elimination of fuel subsidies.

Thus, only N500 billion from the 2022 Supplementary Act of N819,536,937,815 has been taken out to provide palliative measures to mitigate the effects of the elimination of the gasoline subsidy.

The national assembly approved a N819 billion supplemental budget in December for the fiscal year 2022.

The national legislature amended the 2022 supplemental budget in May 2023 to push back the implementation of the capital components until December 2023.