President Muhammadu Buhari has taken a decision on the 2019 budget which was submitted to him by the lawmakers after they had finalised work on it.
President Buhari on Monday in Abuja finally signed the 2019 Appropriate bill of N8.92 trillion into law. With the latest development, it is expected that the economic activities in Nigeria will improve as there will be more funds released to the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to carry out their various functions.
According to PM News, the President had submitted the 2019 budget of N8.83trillion to the Senate but was increased by about N10billion by the Upper House, bringing the amount to N8.92trillion.
Some dignitaries who witnessed the signing of the budget, which took place at the mini-conference hall of the president, included the Senate President Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives,Yakubu Dogara.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha and the Chief of Staff to the President, Malam Abba Kyari also witnessed the signing of the budget. Others at the event were the Ministers of Finance (Zainab Ahmed), Budget and National Planning (Sen. Udoma Udu Udoma), Information and Culture (Lai Mohammed) and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Sen. Danjuma Goje,
The Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Sen. Ita Enang and his counterpart for the House of Representatives, Umar El-Yakub were also at the event.
The president said he only signed the bill because he didn’t want to further slow down the pace of recovery of Nigeria’s economy, and further disclosed that he’ll send “a supplementary and/or amendment budget” to the national assembly to rectify the critical issues he raised.
There have been some delays in the budgets passage and signing in the previous years of this government. Most responsible for the delay is the disagreement between the Executive and the Legislative arms of the federal government on some issues in those budgets.
It is believed that the second term of President Buhari will be different as his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC is hopeful of controlling the leadership of the two legislative chambers of the National Assembly unlike what obtained in this his first term when the two main leaders of the Assembly belong to the main opposition party.
Recall that Saraki and Dogara had defected to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, after winning the posts of Senate President and Speaker under the platform of the ruling APC.
They have retained their posts despite calls for them to quit.
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