National Assembly yet to send 2018 budget to President

The National Assembly has not forwarded the 2018 appropriations bill to President Muhammadu Buhari a week after it was passed by both the upper and lower legislative chambers.

While speaking to State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Wednesday, May 23, 2018, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, said the president has not received the bill for final assent.

He said, "The President is yet to receive the budget. It is, therefore, impossible to make a statement about the budget that has not been received. Once we get it, we will work very quickly on it. When it is submitted, I am sure the National Assembly themselves will inform Nigerians."

Even though President Buhari presented the N8.612 trillion bill before a joint session of the National Assembly with the aim of making sure it was already signed into law by January 2018, lawmakers didn't pass it until Wednesday, May 16, 2018, with the budget increased to N9.120 trillion.

When he presented the budget in 2017, the president said it would help consolidate on the achievements of previous budgets to aggressively steer the economy to the path of steady growth.

Details of the 2018 budget as seen by Pulse shows that N530,420,368,624 has been earmarked for statutory transfers; 2,203,835,365,699 for debt service; and 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.