Nigerian Senate to consider N895.8bn supplementary budget

Nigerian Senate President, Dr Ahmad Lawan, has disclosed the plan of the red chamber to consider the request of President Muhammadu Buhari’s N895.842 billion Supplementary Appropriations Bill, 2021 this week Wednesday.

Speaking after the Senate received the report of its Committee on Appropriations, on the supplementary budget, Senator Lawan informed his colleagues to be prepared for the legislative duty.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Jibrin Barau, had last week pleaded with the Senate to allow the joint committees of the Senate and House of Representatives to come up with a harmonised report on the supplementary appropriations bill to facilitate its eventual presentation to both chambers.

Senator Jibrin in keeping with his request for a time extension, finally laid the report of the supplementary Appropriation Bill, 2021, before the Senate.

President Buhari had about two weeks ago transmitted a Supplementary Appropriation Bill of N895.842,465,917 billion to the National Assembly for consideration and approval.

He explained that the proposed amount would be used to fund the COVID-19 vaccine programme; fund health-related expenditures for the treatment of additional 50,000 patients under the Nigeria Comprehensive AIDS Program in states; and procure additional equipment captured in this year’s capital expenditure on Defence and Security to tackle prevalent security challenges across the country.