The 2023 Appropriations Bill has been approved by Nigeria’s House of Representatives, increasing the total estimates from the initial N20.51tn to N21,827,188,747,391.
Following deliberation and acceptance of the report by the House Committee on Appropriations on the bill at the plenary on Wednesday, the federal government budget was passed.
The report was included on an additional order paper that was subsequently distributed during the session.
The House had earlier on Wednesday enacted the 2022 Finance Bill, 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Bill, and Appropriation Act 2022 (Amendment) Bill, which postponed the implementation of the capital spending portion of this year’s budget until March 31, 2023.
The 2023 Appropriations Bill was supposed to be passed by the National Assembly last week, but it wasn’t until this week.
A number of lawmakers had last week attributed the delay to the 2022 Finance Bill and Supplementary Appropriations Bill, which had just been forwarded to the National Assembly for review and approval.
The Supplementary Appropriations Bill was received by the parliament on Thursday, the same day that legislators expected to adopt the 2023 budget and adjourn for the year. President Muhammadu Buhari had delivered the Finance Bill to the National Assembly on Wednesday of last week.
The National Assembly got the Finance Bill from President Muhammadu Buhari last week on Wednesday, and the Parliament received the Supplementary Appropriations Bill on Thursday, the day before legislators were scheduled to enact the 2023 budget and adjourn for the year.
