Tony Ailemen, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari has assented to the Federal Capital Territory Appropriation (Amendment) Act 2018, extending the 2017 budget to March, 2017.
Recall that Senate had approved N222, 360, 551, 512 as Statutory Appropriation for the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, in November, 2017.
The Act amends the Federal Capital Territory Appropriation Act 2017 as passed by the National Assembly extending the implementation period of the Federal Capital Appropriation Act 2017 from 31st December, 2017 to 31st March, 2018
The new law approves the implementation of the FCT budget until the coming into force of the Federal Capital Territory Appropriation Act 2018, whichever is earlier.
A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, ( Senate), Ita Enang, said the “Assent now extends the life of the F.C.T Appropriation Act and the Administration can now continue implementing projects and programmes in accordance with the 2017 Act assented to in December, 2017.”
Of the N222.3 billion budget for the FCT, N52.5 billion is for personnel costs, while the overhead costs is N41 billion totaling N93.8 billion recurrent, but the capital expenditure which is affected by the amendment is put at N128.4 billion.
The Senate passed the 2017 FCT budget after the consideration of the report of the FCT Statutory Appropriation Bill, 2017 (SB550) by the Chairman, Senate Committee on FCT, Senator Dino Melaye, APC, Kogi West in November, 2017.
