The Nigerian Senate Wednesday passed the 2018 appropriation bill estimated to be N9.12 trillion and would be forwarded to President Muhammadu Buhari for his assent.
Danjuma Goje, chairman of the Senate committee on appropriations, laid the report of the appropriation bill before the Senate on Tuesday.
He briefed his colleagues on the components of the budget, saying it contains N3.5 trillion for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, N2.9 trillion for development fund for capital expenditure, N2.2 trillion for debt servicing, N530.4 billion for statutory transfer and N190 billion for a sinking fund for maturing loans.
While debating on the budget before it was passed, the lawmakers said it was unfortunate that Nigerians believed that the passage was delayed by the Senate when it was the executive that actually did.
They said ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) of Federal Government failed to defend their budget estimates until they were directed to do so in March this year.
President Muhammadu Buhari had presented the budget of N8.612 trillion to the parliament for passage in November 2017.
But the National Assembly raised the estimate to N9.12 trillion.
Last week, Kemi Adeosun, Nigeria’s minister of finance said the delay in passage of the country’s 2018 budget would have some impact on the nation and cause some adjustments in implementation.
Nigeria’s fiscal reform enters command phase