Following the marching order by President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday directing all MDAs to submit 2018 Budget estimates to the National Assembly and honour invitation to defend the estimates, the House of Representatives said on Thursday that, all things being equal, the 2018 Appropriation Bill would be passed on April 24, 2018.
Revealing this at plenary on Thursday, Speaker Yakubu Dogara also informed that a joint committee of both chambers has proposed to lay the report of the budget on April 19, 2018 for subsequent passage on April 24, 2018.
Reading a notice handed to him by deputy Speaker, Sulaimon Yussuff, Dogara said, “We are proposing that we are laying the budget finally on the 19th of April 2018. Hopefully, we will be passing the budget on 24 April 2018.
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This is a harmonised calendar with the Senate”. The issue of the 2018 budget passage had been raging in the past few days, with the legislature accusing the executive of delaying the process.
The National Assembly said the failure of heads of ministries, departments and agencies to defend the appropriations bill is causing the delay. This prompted President Muhammadu Buhari to give marching orders to Agencies, Corporations and government owned companies on the budget. Buhari said the MDAs have till tomorrow to submit details of their 2018 budget estimates to the appropriate committees of the National Assembly.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, disclosed this in a circular conveying the directive on Monday to all MDAs. The SGF directed the agencies to comply with the provisions of the law and honour invitations to defend their estimates timeously.
Read More at: https://leadership.ng/2018/03/22/at-last-nass-to-pass-2018-budget-april-24/
