No fewer than 400 copies of 2017 budget was conveyed and delivered in the chambers of the House of Representatives, as the lawmakers get prepared for consideration of the N7,441,175,486,758 Appropriation bill, 2017.
As reported exclusively by BusinessDay yesterday, National Assembly’s budget was jerked up from N115 billion in 2016 to N125 billion representing N10 billion increment in the 2017 fiscal year.
Aside National Assembly which got the highest allocation of N125 billion from the total sum of N434,412,950,249 provided under the Statutory Transfer, National Judicial Council gets N100 billion, followed by N95,189,395,583 for Universal Basic Education; N64,023,554,666 for Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC); N45 billion for Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); N4 billion for Public Complaimts Commission and N1.2 billion for National Human Right Commission, respectively.
Out of total sum of N1,663,885,430,499 approved for Debt service, the sum of N1,488,002,436,547 is for Domestic Debts while N175,882,993,952 is for foreign debts.
Breakdown of the budget details showed to Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing get the highest capital allocation of N553,713,857,113 followed by N241.709 billion for Federal Ministry of Transportation; N139,294,920,350 for Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; N104,245,803,117 for Federal Ministry of Water Resources and N103,793,201,010.
At about 12:07pm, Speaker Yakubu Dogara who presided over the Thursday plenary urged the House to suspend other legislative activities slated on the Order Paper to enable the House consider the budget.
As at the time of filing this report, the House dissolved to Committee of Supply to consider the budget.
Details soon…
