NASS increases 2018 budget from N8.6trn to N9.1trn

The National Assembly has increased the 2018 budget from the initial N8.612 trillion to N9.120 trillion.

The details of the budget were listed on the order paper available at the Nigerian Senate on today.

The report was laid by Danjuma Goje, Chairman of the Senate Appropriation Committee and assisted by Senator Mathew Uroghide.

The national assembly had promised to pass the N8.6 trillion budget on April 24 but it failed to do so.

Similarly, the House of Representatives on May 3, promised to pass the budget the following week.

“By next week, everything about the budget will be treated and passed,” the spokesman of the lower legislative chamber, Abdulrazak Namdas, said.

But the report on the budget was not laid in either of the chambers. The Senate did not sit on the Thursday of that week.

On May 7, after a meeting with Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s President, Bukola Saraki, President of the Nigerian Senate, told journalists that the bill would be laid “early next week”.

“Well, hopefully, it should be laid this week. If it can’t be laid this week, early next week but we are hoping it will be laid this week”, Saraki had said.

On Tuesday, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yusuf Lasun, who presided over the session, said the lawmakers will consider and pass the budget on Wednesday, May 16 or Thursday, May 17.