OrderPaperToday– President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the 2018 budget into law, some eight months after laying the bill.
Recall that the President submitted the budget to the National Assembly on the 7th of November 2017 at a joint session.
The National Assembly then passed the appropriation bill on the 16th of May 2018, about seven months after its submission.
The federal legislature however increased the original sum of the budget from N8.6 trillion to N9.1 trillion and then transmitted it to the presidency on the 25th of May.
Buhari appended his signature in his office in the Presidential Villa at about noon today. The presiding officers of the National Assembly, Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara, were conspicuously absent at the signing ceremony.
The President was however joined in the ceremony by the Deputy Senate Leader, Bala Na’Allah, Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Doguwa, and chairmen of the Appropriation Committees of both chambers, among officials from the Executive.
In the signed document, oil production volume remained at 2.3 million barrels per share and the exchange rate was pegged at N305 to $1.
N2.2 trillion will serve as debt service, N1.195 trillion as fiscal deficit and N530.4 billion as statutory transfer.
Share your thoughts