The Senate has approved the sum of N8,916,964,099,373 (Eight Trillion, Nine Hundred and Sixteen Billion, Nine Hundred and Sixty Four Million, Ninety Nine Thousand, Three Hundred and Seventy Three Naira only) as the 2019 budget.
Presenting the report of the Committee on Appropriations at the plenary session of Tuesday, 30 April 2019, the Chairman, Sen. Danjuma Goje (APC: Gombe)informed the Senate that the Committee had adopted the aggregates in the 2019-2021 Medium Term Expenditure Framework(MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) that was approved by the National Assembly.
Sen. Goje explained that the Committee had made provisions for severance benefits for the out-going legislators, legislatives aides, and the induction/orientation exercise for newly elected legislators that was not captured in the 2019 budget proposal presented by President Muhammadu Buhari
He then noted the highlights of the 2019 Budget to include:
- Statutory Transfers- N502,058,892,965
- Debt Service- N2,254,014,113,092
- Recurrent (Non-Debt) – N4,055,840,383,684
- Capital Expenditure – N2,094,950,709,632
- Deficit to GDP- 37%
- Special Intervention – N500,000,000,000
Concluding his submission, Sen. Goje requested the Senate’s approval of the sum of N8,906,964,099,373 (Eight Trillion, Nine Hundred and Six Billion, Nine Hundred and Sixty Four Million, Ninety Nine Thousand, Three Hundred and Seventy Three Naira only) as the 2019 budget. While the Senate accepted the submission of Sen. Goje, it however resolved to include the sum of N10, 000, 000, 000 (Ten Billion Naira) as Federal Government Intervention in Zamfara State as Service Wide Votes raising the sum to N8, 916, 964,099, 373 (Eight Trillion, Nine Hundred and Sixteen Billion, Nine Hundred and Sixty Four Million, Ninety Nine Thousand, Three Hundred and Seventy Three Naira only).
It would be recalled that the President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, 20th December 2018, presented the sum of N8,826,636,578,915 ( Eight Trillion, Eight Hundred and Twenty-Six Billion, Six Hundred and Thirty Six Million, Five Hundred and Seventy Eight Thousand, Nine Hundred and Fifteen Naira only) as the 2019 budget proposal to the National Assembly.
