National Assembly Passes N9.120trn 2018 Budget

THE National Assembly on Wednesday passed the 2018 Appropriation Bill.

The lawmakers during plenary passed the total sum of N9.120 trillion, an increase of N508 billion from the N8.612 trillion originally presented to the Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje after consultation with the Executive, the oil benchmark price was increased from 45 to 51 dollars.

He stressed that the additional 508 billion added to the budget was applied in critical sectors of the economy such as: reduction of the deficit, security, health and power, works and housing.

Also, the House of Representatives passed the 2018 budget with a recurrent expenditure of 3,512,677,902,077 and capital expenditure of 2,873,400,351,825.

A debt servicing cost of 2,203,835,365,699 and statutory transfers of 530,421,368,624.

The passage of the budget had earlier been delayed because the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies had not submitted details of their budget proposals, which led to the Senate giving them a one-week ultimatum to submit details of their 2018 budget proposals or risk sanctions.

The President, Muhammadu Buhari on November 17, 2017, presented a budget of N8.612 trillion before a joint session of the National Assembly.

President Buhari said, “the 2018 budget will consolidate on the achievements of the previous budget and that 2018 is expected to be a year of better outcomes”.