Six months after the 2018 budget was presented by the executive, the Senate and the House of Representatives Wednesday passed the 2018 budget, increasing it by N500 billion.
Both Houses on Wednesday approved a budget that rose from N8.6 trillion to N9.1 trillion.
President Muhammadu Buhari presented had the budget to a joint session of the National Assembly on November 7, 2017.
Both houses of the National Assembly on Tuesday received the budget report of their appropriation committees.
At the Senate, the chairman of the senate committee on appropriation, Danjuma Goje, said the increase of N500 billion was done in consultation with the executive.
He said the increment was informed by a decision to increase oil benchmark from the proposed N45 to N51.
The exchange rate of N305 to a dollar and production of 2.3 million barrels of oil per day was adopted as proposed by the executive.
Goje said the funds that accrued from the increment will be spent on some projects already earmarked by the committee.
He said the surplus fund was spread on some ‘critical sectors’ in consultation with the executive, giving a breakdown of how much more will be spent on different sectors.
According to the report, N42.72billion will be spent on security, N57. 15 billion on the 1 per cent vote for health as mandated by the National Health Act, N106.50b billion for the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.
Other areas are; education, N15.7 billion, Judiciary, N10 billion and Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), N44.20billion.
He added that the increment will allow for a N50.88 billion deficit reduction.
In the final breakdown, the senate passed a 2018 budget of N9, 120, 334, 988, 225 of which N530, 421, 368, 624 is for statutory transfers as against N456, 458, 654, 074 proposed by the executive.
N2, 203, 835, 365, 699 was budgeted for debt service as proposed while N190, 000, 000, 000 was budgeted for sinking fund for maturing loans.
N3, 512, 677, 902, 077 was earmarked for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure with a slight increment from N3, 494, 277, 820, 219 proposed and N2, 873, 400, 351, 825 was budgeted for capital expenditure as against N2, 427, 665, 113, 222.
The budget will have a fiscal deficit of N1, 954, 464, 993, 775 and a deficit to GDP of -1.73 per cent.
House of Representatives
At the House of Representatives, the appropriations committee also presented its report.
Of the total, N530billion is for statutory transfers; N2 trillion for debt service; N2 trillion for sinking fund for maturing bonds and N2 trillion for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure. Capital expenditure is N2.8 trillion.
According to the report, eight establishments are to get their allocations on first line charge.
These are N110 billion for statutory transfer to the National Judicial Council, N81 billion to the Niger-Delta Development Commission, N34 billion as part payment to NDDC Outstanding Liabilities on Federal Government of Nigeria, N109 billion for Universal Basic Education, N139 billion for National Assembly and N7 billion for Public Compliant Commission.
Others are N45 billion for Independent National Electoral Commission and N3 billion for National Human Rights Commission.
Omo-Agege returns to Senate
The Senator representing Delta Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Ovie Omo-Agege, yesterday resumed at the Senate.
Omo-Agege was suspended by the Senate for 90 days but a court subsequently nullified the action, directing that he should be allowed to resume. However, he failed to show up at the Senate on Tuesday as expected.
When he turned up on Wednesday, he signed the attendance register at about 10:30am before proceeding to the upper legislative chambers just as the Senate was going into a closed-door session.
The lawmaker was suspended in April following his comments at a press conference that the proposed amendment of the 2010 Electoral Act to change the sequence of elections set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was targeted at President Muhammadu Buhari.
Although he later apologised for his comments, the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges recommended his suspension for 181 legislative days. However, Senate President Bukola Saraki recommended its reduction to 90 legislative days.
After his suspension, thugs believed to be working for him invaded the Senate and made away with the Mace, the symbol of authority. Omo-Agege, had since denied his involvement in the incident.
