The National Assembly yesterday passed a supplementary budget of N2.176 trillion.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu presented it on Tuesday.
The House of Representatives deleted the N5 billion proposed for the Presidential Yacht and added it to the N5 billion initially allocated for the students’ loan scheme.
The Senate okayed the N5 billion proposal for the yacht.
Both bills may be harmonised before being forwarded to the President for assent.
The Ministry of Defence got the lion’s share of the allocations, receiving N476. 543 billion, followed by the Ministry of Works with N300 billion.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security got N200 billion; the Ministry of Housing received N100 billion.
The Federal Capital Territory Authority (FCTA) got N100 billion and Police Formations and Command got N50 billion.
Service Wide Votes was allocated N615 billion; State House got N28 billion, while N210 billion was reserved for Capital Supplementation.
Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Appropriation Chairmen, Senator Solomon Adeola and Abubakar Kabir Abubakar presented the report separately at both chambers.
Adeola said the Supplementary Appropriation Bill seeks to provide additional palliative measures, including wage awards for public servants.
Abubakar said the House Committee increased the budget for Defence from N456 billion to N546 billion.
It also increased allocation to Police Formations to N50 billion from the initial N27 billion.
He said the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), got N100 billion, Agriculture and Food Security, N200 billion; State House, N28 billion.
Ministry of Housing got N100 billion, while the allocation for Service Wide Vote was reduced from N615 billion to N515 billion.
Abubakar said the House deleted the N5 billion earlier proposed for Presidential Yacht under the allocation to the Nigerian Navy and transfered it to the N5 billion initially allocated for the students’ loan scheme.
The Senate passed the allocation for the Presidential Yacht as proposed by the executive.
The National Assembly allocated N210billion for wage awards to civil servants; N400billion for cash transfer to vulnerable households; N200billion for seed and agricultural input and equipment, and N100billion for projects in the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).
The Supplementary Budget also includes N300billion for the maintenance of bridges, N8billion for the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy and other new ministries, as well as N18billion for the conduct of off-cycle governorship elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo states slated for November 11.
Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele and his House counterpart, Julius Ihonvbare, moved separate motions for the bill to be read for the third time and passed.
Ihonvbare said,
“That the House do consider the Report of the Committee on Appropriations on a Bill for an Act to authorise the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation the total sum of N2,176,791,286,033 only, of which N18 billion only is for Statutory Transfers, N1,033,471,162,373 only is for Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure while the sum of N1,125,320,123,660 only is for contribution to the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure for the year ending 31 December 2023.”
The National Assembly also passed all the clauses in the appropriation bill without amendment.
According to the clauses in the Supplementary Budget,
“The Accountant-General of the Federation shall when authorised to do so by warrants signed by the minister charged with responsibility for Finance, pay out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation during the year ending on the 31st day of December 2023, the sums specified by the warrants, not exceeding in the aggregate N2,176,791,286,033 only for the year ending on the 31st day of December 2023;
“The amount mentioned in sub-section (1) of this section shall be appropriated to heads of expenditure as indicated in the Schedule to this Bill;
“No part of the amount aforesaid shall be released from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation after the end of the year mentioned in subsection (1) of this section.
“All amounts appropriated under this Bill shall be released from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation only for the purpose specified in the Schedule to this Bill.
“If the implementation of any of the projects intended to be undertaken under this Bill cannot be completed without virement, such virement shall only be effected with the prior approval of the National Assembly.”
