Abuja (Off. of the Senior Special Ass. to the Pres. on Nat. Assembly Matters) – The sum of N10, 594,362,364.380 for 2020 Appropriation bill has been passed by both the Senate and House of Representatives during their plenary on Thursday December 5, 2019.
The 2020 Appropriation Bill was passed into law after a clause by clause consideration of the report by Committee on Appropriations. The bill was treated within 60days thereby making it the fastest to be passed since 1999.
The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria had earlier presented a total estimate of N10.33 trillion to the National Assembly for passage on November 14, 2019. The budget was increased by N260 billion.
In the Bill passed today, Capital Budget of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing which was N259.201 billion sent by the President has been increased to N315.563 billion and that of Federal Ministry of Transportation reduced from N123.069 to N121.360.
Similarly, the Budget of National Assembly also increased from N125 billion to N128 billion while the Capital Budget of Ministry of Power was reduced from N133.494 to N129.082 billion.
Others are Ministry of Education which increased from N50.946 billion to N84.728 billion, Ministry of Health also increased from N46.477 to N59.909 billion and the budget for Ministry of Water Resources was increased from N78.378billion to N91.679 billion.
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, in his concluding remarks after the 2020 budget was passed, said, “when we came in, all of us approved our legislative agenda, and one of the key pillars of this agenda is to take back our budget cycle from the very undesirable cycle that cannot be defined to something that can be defined and bought into by our Country and business partners living in and outside the Country.”
The Senate President also noted that with the recent passage of landmark legislations such as the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) Act, Finance Bills and Public Procurement Bills by the National Assembly, the Executive arm of government is sufficiently empowered to ensure the successful implementation of the 2020 budget.
The passage of the annual 2020 budget before the end of the 2019 fiscal year by the National Assembly signals the country’s return to a January – December budget cycle after decades of its disruption.
OLALERE TAIWO
FOR: HEAD OF PRESS
OFFICE OF THE SENIOR SPECIAL ASSSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT ON NATIONAL ASSEMBLY MATTERS
