President Muhammad Buhari will sign the 2020 budget Appropriation Bill of N10.59 trillion into law on Tuesday. The appropriation bill was transmitted to Mr Buhari’s office for his assent last week by the National Assembly. The President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan had assured that the lawmakers would pass the budget before the years runs out in other to revert the nation’s budgeting system back to December to January budget cycle.
While President Buhari proposed a budget of N10.33 trillion to the National Assembly, the lawmaker ended up approving the sum of N10.59 trillion as against the presidency appropriation Bill.
Dissecting the breakdown of the budget, it was observed that the lawmakers increased their budget from 125 to 128 billion.
Meanwhile, the green chamber has passed the harmonised version the Senate earlier passed to ensure that the budget runs from 1st January to 31st December 2020.
Contained in the budget, the Judiciary was appropriated with N11o billion while the sum of N808 billion went to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Accordingly, the National Assembly shifted the oil benchmark from $55 dollar as proposed by the presidency to $57 per barrel but maintained the daily oil production of 2.18 million barrel per day.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate was maintained at 2.93 per cent, inflation rate at 10.81 per cent while exchange rate at 305/US$1 as proposed by the executive.
N90 billion was added to the budget by the Senate to cater to the security challenges bedevilling the country, the package for lawmakers and security challenges faces by the Zamfara state people.
