•Nigerian Senate
Three hundred billion naira of the N700 billion added to the 2025 budget is for procurement of drugs and vaccines, a report by the National Assembly’s joint committee on appropriations has revealed.
The report, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondent, said this and the requests to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, by some ministries and agencies for more funds, prompted the lawmakers to increase the 2025 budget from N54.2 trillion estimate to N59.77 trillion, reports Daily Trust.
It explained that the provision of $200 million (equivalent of N300 billion) for procurement of vaccines and drugs was sequel to the suspension, by the United States Government, of further interventions in the Nigeria’s health sector through provision of vaccines and drugs for malaria, Polio, HIV and Tuberculosis using its agency, USAID.
US President Donald Trump had, following his inauguration of January 20, signed executive orders affecting countries relying on US, including Nigeria, for health funding.
The report of the appropriation committee said the suspension of the intervention could have adverse effects on Nigerians affected by such diseases.
“On this note, the president proactively made a new provision of $200 million which is equivalent to N300 billion, in the Service Wide Votes to fill the gap created by the United States (US) Government’s suspension of intervention to Nigerian health sector, to proactively address the abovementioned health challenges which are currently being suffered by countries like Uganda and others,” the report of the National Assembly’s joint committee on appropriations read in part.
Both chambers had last Thursday passed the Appropriation Bill after raising the estimates by N700 billion.
Tinubu had, on December 18, 2024, presented the N49.7 trillion Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly, but requested the lawmakers, on February 5, 2025, to increase the estimates to N54.2 trillion.
The report said “after thorough examination” by the committee, additional funds were provided to the agencies.
The report listed the benefitting agencies as including the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission (ICPC), the National Judicial Council (NJC), the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the Department of State Service (DSS), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Armed Forces, among others.”
The report did not state how much each of the benefitting MDAs received as the additional allocations.
