President Buhari Finally Signs 2018 Budget …Accuses National Assembly of Padding

President Buhari Finally Signs 2018 Budget

…Accuses National Assembly of Padding

President Muhammadu Buhari has finally  signed the 2018 N9.12 trillion Appropriation Bill into law seven months after the spending list was presented to the National Assembly.

According to the President, aside the length of time it took the lawmakers to pass the budget, Buhari while signing the budget had criticized the National Assembly for reducing allocations for some projects especially in key sectors which he said would have impacted more on the economy while they included thousands of projects into the budget without consultation with the Executive.

He said he was compelled to sign the budget in order not to keep the economy continuously on standstill.

“When I submitted the 2018 Budget proposals to the National Assembly on 7th November 2017, I had hoped that the usual legislative review process would be quick, so as to move Nigeria towards a predictable January-December financial year,” he said.

However, he has indicated interest to forward supplementary budget to the National Assembly to make up the figures that were cut by the lawmakers.

READ Full TEXT – Buhari’s Speech During the Signing of the 2018 Budget

“When I submitted the 2018 Budget proposals to the National Assembly on 7th November 2017, I had hoped that the usual legislative review process would be quick, so as to move Nigeria towards a predictable January-December financial year” .

“The National Assembly made cuts amounting to 347 billion Naira in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to them for consideration and introduced 6,403 projects of their own amounting to 578 billion Naira.

“Many of the projects cut are critical and may be difficult, if not impossible, to implement with the reduced allocation.

“Some of the new projects inserted by the National Assembly have not been properly conceptualized, designed and cost and will, therefore, be difficult to execute.”

The setback notwithstanding, President Buhari had expressed his determination to working together with the National Assembly in improving the budgeting process with a view to restoring Nigeria to the January-December fiscal year.

BUDGET ALLOCATIONs

The Ministry of Power, Works and Housing received N682,959,550,242; Ministry of Transportation, N251,420,000.000; Ministry of Defence, N157,715,439.613; Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, N149,198,139.0 37; Ministry of Water Resources, N147,199,614,645; and Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, N105,156,176,854.Ministry of Education got N102,907,290,833; Ministry of Health, N86,482,848,198; Ministry of Environment, N17,492,955,833; and Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, N58,082,611,977.