Buhari Signs 2020 Appropriation Bill Into Law

At the budget signing were the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President, Ahmad Lawan; Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila and others.

Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday signed the 2020 appropriation bill of N10.59 trillion into law.

Signing the budget into law, Buhari said he was happy to have signed appropriation bill into law on his 77th birthday.

He said the federal budget had now been restored to January-December implementation cycle, commending the National Assembly for doing a good job.

The Senate had on Thursday, December 5, passed the 2020 budget of N10.594 trillion into law.

The passage of the budget represented record-breaking and a deviation from what was obtained in the 8th National Assembly in which budget was passed almost eight months after it was presented.

The 2020 Appropriation Bill was passed into law after a clause by clause consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

The Senate specifically approved N10,594,362,364,830 ( for the 2020 fiscal year.

The breakdown shows that N560,470,827,235 is for statutory transfers, N2,725,498,930,000 for Debt Service; N4,842,974,600,640 for Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure; and N2,465,418,006,955 for Contribution to the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure for the year ending on December 31, 2020.

The budget has a Fiscal deficit of N2.2 trillion and Deficit/Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 1.52 percent.

The budget is predicated on Crude Oil production of 2.18mbpd, just as proposed by the Executive; Oil Price benchmark of 57 dollars per barrel as against US$55 proposed by the Executive, Exchange Rate of N305 to US$1; Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Inflation Rate of 2.93 percent and 10.81 percent respectively.

Capital Expenditure for Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government  (MDAs) for the 2020 fiscal year are: Ministry of Defence N116,181,290,730; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, N7,608,141,474; Ministry of Information and Culture, N7,555,803,233; Ministry of Interior, N34,035,825,302; Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, N1,722,796,040; Ministry of Police Affairs, N15,959,986,864; Ministry of Communication Technology, N5,919,002,554; and Office of the National Security Adviser, N27,418,469,323.

Others are: Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, N25,188,940,930; Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, N2,158,620,395; Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, N124,395,096,917; Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, N4,976,199,925; Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, N38,583,331,761; Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, N24,445,756,678; Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, N62,882,531,566; Federal Ministry of Transport, N121,366,932,571; and Federal Ministry of Aviation, N52,061,533,122.