•Tinubu at NASS
The presidency is to get nearly N146 billion in the proposed 2024 budget, according to fresh documents released last night by the House of Representatives. The amount comprises N60,535, 827, 133 for capital expenditure and N85,413, 321,897 for recurrent expenditure.
For statutory transfers, the National Assembly will get N197,932,625,616; National Judicial Council ( NJC) NI65,000,000; Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC) N324,844,833046; North East Development Commission (NEDC) N126,936, 316, 904 and Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) N251,474,292,062.
The Ministry of Defence is to get about N1.578 trillion naira, including N308, 235,451, 796 for capital expenditure and N1,270,214,867, 282 for recurrent in the 2024 fiscal year. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food security will get N222,537, 634, 701 and N110, 178,278, 864 for capital and recurrent expenditure respectively.
Similarly, the Ministry of Works was allocated N521, 324, 938, 938 for capital and N39, 374, 777,404 for recurrent expenditure; while the Ministry of Education has a proposal of N265, 461, 353,682 as capital vote and N857, 304,663, 617 for recurrent.
The Ministry of Health and Social welfare got N304, 428,594, 777 as capital vote and N672, 382, 409, 850 for recurrent expenditure. In the same vein, Ministry of Power has N 78, 794, 746, 687 and N7,218, 123, 325 proposal for capital and recurrent expenditure respectively.
President Bola Tinubu had presented an Appropriation Bill of N27,503,404,073,861 christened Budget of Renewed Hope to a joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday. The Appropriation Bill consists of N1,376,352,359,690 statutory transfer, N8,490,960,606,831 for debt servicing; N9,918,248,229,600 for recurrent (non debt) expenditure; while the sum of N7,717,842,877,740 only is for contribution to the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure.
Spokesman of the House of Representatives, Akin Rotimi, who released the document, noted: “Following the presentation of the 2024 Appropriation Bill by H.E. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Wednesday, November 29, 2023, legislative action on the bill has commenced in earnest.
The House of Representatives held plenary on Thursday, November 30, and Friday, December 1, 2023, to debate the bill extensively, further to which the bill passed Second Reading, and was committed to the House Committee on Appropriation.
Today, Saturday, December 2, 2023, further legislative steps would be taken, including a briefing by the Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, to guide the leadership of all House Standing Committees on the standardised process of scrutiny and consideration of the budget proposal, as well as the process of engaging the Ministeries, Departments, and Agencies for budget defense.
The House Committee on Appropriations has further released the Sectoral Allocations for due scrutiny.
In line with our Legislative Agenda, the 10th Assembly of the House of Representatives remains committed to ensuring a transparent, inclusive, and thorough process of budget consideration.”
