National Assembly to pass 2016 budget on March 17

  

The National Assembly on Wednesday assured Nigerians that the much delayed passage of the 2016 appropriation bill (national budget) will be effected on March 17, 2016

President Buhari presenting the 2016 budget to the National Assembly

The joint committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on Appropriations at a briefing on Wednesday stated that the N6.08tn budget would be passed on March 17 following the presentation of the final report on the appropriation bill on March 16 for consideration and subsequent passage.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Danjuma Goje, and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Abdulmumin Jibrin, gave this assurance at a press conference in Abuja.

Goje said that both committees would meet critical stakeholders, including the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun; Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma; Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele; Accountant-General of the Federation; and Director, Budget Office of the Federation on Thursday.

He said the committees and the invited officials would seize the opportunity of the meeting to address grey areas observed in the budget.

Goje said, “We are going to engage other ministers to ensure that as much as possible, we align this budget to satisfy the needs of Nigerians.

“We may not be 100 per cent right, but we will try to get it right because the basic thing is to ensure that we produce a budget that will translate into the betterment of the lives of Nigerians.”

When asked if both legislative chambers would conclude the consideration of the bulky submissions of all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the government within the four hours of sitting as promised, Jibrin explained that the lawmakers were already familiar with the details of the budget.

He explained that the budgets of all the MDAs had been submitted, adding that the minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, who earlier failed to present his ministry’s budget due to official engagements, eventually did so on Tuesday behind closed doors.