Nigerian senate eventually passes 2017 budget six months into the year ending spat with executive

NIGERIA'S senate has eventually passed the 2017 budget some five months into the year following the adoption of a report by the joint National Assembly Committee on Appropriations.

Over the last seven months, the Nigerian legislature and executive have been at loggerheads over the budget, which it becoming a key battleground over their differences. Among other things, the National assembly has refused to ratify the appointment of several government appointees, while in return, the security agencies have harassed several senators, arresting them for numerous offences.

After seven months of bitter wrangling though, the senate finally passed the budget of N9.12trn. On Tuesday, the joint National Assembly Committee on Appropriations report was put to the senate and lawmakers then considered and adopted it at an extended plenary yesterday.

On November 7 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari had presented a budget of N8.612trn to the National Assembly for approval. However, legislators hiked the budget to N9.12trn, by adding N508bn to it, which was contained in the report considered by house houses.

In the new budget, N530,421,368,624 was proposed for statutory transfer, N2,869,600,351,825 for capital expenditure, N3,516,477,902,077 for recurrent non debt expenditure and N2,203,835,365,699 is for debt servicing. A total of N199bn was approved as a sinking fund for maturing loans.