Supplementary Budget: Defence gets lion’s share of N476.5BN

The National Assembly on Thursday passed the supplementary budget of N2.176 trillion presented to it by President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday, October 31.

Both chamber of the national assembly speedily passed the budget after deliberation on it.

A cursory look at the Bill showed that the Ministry of Defence got a lion’s share of the allocation in the sum of N476. 543 billion, followed by the Ministry of Works with N300billion, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security – N200 billion, Ministry of Housing – N100 billion, FCTA-N100 billion and Police Formations and Command got N50billion.

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However, Service Wide Votes was allocated N615 billion, State House got N28 billion, while N210 billion was reserved for Capital Supplementation.

A report of the National Assembly Committees on Appropriation was presented to both chambers at plenary on Thursday by the Chairmen, Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Appropriation, Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (APC – Ogun West) and Hon. Abubakar Kabir Abubakar (APC, Kano) respectively.

In his presentation, Senator Adeola said the Supplementary Appropriation Bill seeks to provide additional palliative measures, including Wage Award for Public Servants and enhance the cash transfer programme which is intended to benefit the most vulnerable members of the society.

He said the Supplementary Budget will provide additional funds for critical defence expenditures urgently required for peace and the security of lives and property without which the government’s economic growth agenda cannot be achieved and critical investment in roads infrastructure whose projects must commence within the dry season.

On his part, Hon. Abubakar said the House Committee on Appropriation increased the budget for Defence from N456 billion to N546 billion, while also increasing allocation to Police Formations to N50 billion from the initial N27 billion.

He said the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), got N100 billion, the Agriculture and Food Security – N200 billion, the State House N28billion, the Ministry of Housing got N100 billion, while the allocation for Service Wide Vote was reduced from N615 billion to N515 billion.

Hon. Abubakar also disclosed that the House has deleted the N5 billion earlier proposed for the Presidential Yacht under the allocation to the Nigerian Navy and added the money to the N5 billion initially allocated for the students’ loan scheme.

However, the Senate passed the allocation for the Presidential Yacht as proposed by the executive.

Also, the National Assembly allocated N210 billion for Wage Award for Civil Servants, N400billion for Cash Transfer to vulnerable households, N200 billion for Seed and Agricultural input and Equipment, and N100billion for Projects in the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).

The Supplementary Budget as passed also includes the sum of N604billion for National Security and Defence, N300billion for the maintenance of bridges across Nigeria, N8billion for the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy and other new Ministries as well as N18billion for the conduct of off-cycle governorship elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo states slated for November 11, 2023.