- Lawmakers have promised to transmit the approved budget to President Muhammadu Buhari
- The members of the House of Representatives said the president will receive the budget on Wednesday, May 23
- According to the chairman of the House committee on media and public affairs, the upper and lower chambers would meet to harmonise the difference in the budget
The House of Representatives has assured that the approved 2018 budget will be transmitted to President Muhammadu Buhari next week.
The lawmakers said the budget will be on the president's table one week from the date it was passed.
Punch reports that the chairman of the House committee on media and public affairs, Abdulrazak Namdas, said that by Wednesday, May 23, the budget would have been sent to the president.
Namdas while noting that there was only little work to be done on the budget by the House said the upper and lower chambers would meet to harmonise the difference in the budget.
He said: “The areas of differences are just three, including the provision that the executive should not spend any funds outside this budget without appropriation by the National Assembly.
“This was inserted to take care of extra-budgetary spending like fuel subsidy or what they call ‘under recovery.’ The Senate is not likely to oppose the provision. On all other areas like the total budget size of N9.12tn, we are on the same page. There is really nothing much to cause further delays.”
Also speaking on the 2018 budget, the deputy chairman of the House committee on appropriation, Chris Azubuogu, said the Senate and the House would meet on Monday, May 21.
According to Azubuogu, the two chamber will harmonise the budget while the office of the clerk will transmit it to the president.
He said: “After the conference, the harmonised report will be adopted on Tuesday by both chambers and that will be all.
“The rest of the work, which is to clean up the budget, will be done by the Office of the Clerk to the National Assembly, who will thereafter transmit the budget to Mr. President."
Meanwhile, Naijafavorite previously reported that the Nigerian Senate passed the 2018 budget on Wednesday, May 16.
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