Ahead of the passage of the 2025 budget, the House of Representatives has hinted that the allocations of key agencies like the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) will be increased.
 
Deputy Spokesman of the House, Philip Agbese, made this known in an interactive session with reporters, yesterday, at the National Assembly complex, Abuja.
 
Also, indications emerged, yesterday, that the National Assembly may pass the proposed N49.7 trillion 2025 Appropriation Bill this week. Agbese, who reiterated the commitment of the Tajudeen Abbas-led House to reposition the country for sustainable development, assured that some other agencies of government would benefit from increased budgetary allocations.
 
The Benue State-born lawmaker, however, declined to disclose the extra amount each of the agencies would get. He said: “NIMC has become a very important agency of government in the past few years. A lot of Nigerians may not know how critical the agency is, but we cannot talk about a national data bank without empowering that commission.
 
“They came up with a robust projection for 2025, but they can only deliver if they are empowered to train their staff and acquire the latest technological devices critical to the work they do. Without the NIMC, the war against terrorism will be difficult for the government and the security agencies.”
 
The All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain maintained that the NYSC scheme deserved increased budgetary allocation in view of its contribution to the manpower needs of the nation in both the public and private sectors.
 
On the NDA, he noted: “At a time terrorists continue to come up with new strategies despite the gallantry of our troops, we cannot but devise means to outwit them. One of the ways to do this is to improve the funding of the institutions charged with the mandate of building the capacity of our security personnel to tackle emerging security challenges.
 
“In all this, we also realised that the budget envelope system is not enough to meet the capital expenditure needs of most of these agencies. It is the same story for other agencies of government.”

The Chairman, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Oluwole Oke, in a January 2025 report, stated that the needs assessment conducted by the ministry indicated that it required N1.5 trillion.

THE Senate and House of Representatives joint Committee on Appropriation is expected to lay their reports today, barring any last-minute hitch. Although both chambers had initially scheduled to pass the budget on Friday, January 31, 2025, the date was shifted to allow standing committees to complete their budget defence process undertaken by heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
 
Both chambers are also expected to adjourn plenary in honour of the late Deputy Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, Oriyomi Onanuga, upon resumption on Tuesday. However, the Appropriation committees are expected to submit their report to the committee of the whole for further consideration.
 
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Adeyemi Adaramodu, confirmed to The Guardian, yesterday, that the budget would likely be passed this week, depending on the content of the report expected to be presented by the National Assembly Committees on Appropriation before the respective chambers.
 
Adaramodu said: “We may likely pass it but it depends on so many variables, like the report of the Appropriations Committee and then the exhaustive debate that we will have on the budget report thereafter.
 
“We want to do this budget thoroughly so that we will not be going back and forth on all these supplementary.”