Senate passes N982bn supplementary budget, increases it by N87bn

The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday, approved the sum of N982.7 billion as Supplementary Appropriation Bill 2021.

This is well over N87 billion of the original N895 billion submitted to the Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari for approval.

The approval followed the presentation of the report of the Senate Committee on Appropriation headed by Senator Jibrin Barau.

In his presentation, Senator Barau explained that N123 billion is for recurrent non-event expenditure while N859 billion is for contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure.

In his remark, the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, noted that the fund will amongst other things help intensify the fight against insecurity and aid procurement and administration of Covid-19 vaccines.

The Senate President however directed the relevant committees of the upper legislative chamber to carry out oversight to ensure that the funds are properly utilised.