Senate passes appropriation bill 5 months late

The Nigerian Senate has finally passed the

The budget was passed by the upper legislative chamber after the presentation of the report on the document by the Senate committee on appropriations.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Danjuma Goje, moved for the consideration of the budget at plenary on Wednesday, May 16, 2018.

The N8.6 trillion 2018 budget which was presented before a joint sitting of the National Assembly on Tuesday, November 7, 2017, by President Muhammadu Buhari has the objective of delivering a three-year Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).

The National Assembly had increased the budget to N9.120 trillion – indicating an extra N508billion.

In his presentation, Senator Goje noted that the increase was arrived at after the committee worked on the document.

The 2018 budget is premised on an Oil benchmark of $51 per barrel, crude oil production of 2.3 million barrels per day and an exchange rate of N305 to the dollar.

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Details of the 2018 budget as seen by shows that N530,420,368,624 has been earmarked for statutory transfers; N2,203,835,365,699 for debt service; N3,512,677,902,077 for recurrent expenditure.

Capital expenditure stands at N2,873,400,351,825; while fiscal deficit has been placed at N1,954,464,993,775.

In his remarks, Senate President Bukola Saraki expressed gratitude to his colleagues for the work done in putting the document together.

He called for the implementation budget which according to him would help improve the living condition of all Nigerians.

Late passage of the 2018 budget

With the passage of the 2018 budget in May, the aim of returning to January to December budget calandar has been defeated.

The National Assembly had blamed the delay on the failure of some heads of government agencies to appear for the budget defence.

President Buhari had ordered defaulting ministers to appear and defend the budget for 2017.

Sequel to this, the Saraki assured President Buhari that the National Assembly would pass the 2018 budget this week.