Buhari signs 2018 budget

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the country’s budget, seven months after the spending list was presented to the National Assembly.

“A few minutes past noon today, I signed the 2018 Appropriation Bill into Law,” Buhari tweeted on Wednesday.

A few minutes past noon today, I signed the 2018 Appropriation Bill into Law. #Budget2018 pic.twitter.com/zQfE5BTPol

— Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) June 20, 2018

He presented the budget on the 7th of November 2017 to the National Assembly. It took about six months for the lawmakers to finally passed it.

They accused the ministries and federal agencies of frustrating the passage by failing to submit the breakdowns of their budget proposals, forcing a presidential order to that effect.

The spending plan as passed by the lawmakers was sent to the Presidency on May 25 after it N8.26 trillion estimate sent in by Buhari was jacked up to N9.12 trillion, representing an increment of N508billion.

The Ministry of Power, Works and Housing received N682,959,550,242; Ministry of Transportation, N251,420,000.000; Ministry of Defence, N157,715,439.613; Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, N149,198,139.0 37; Ministry of Water Resources, N147,199,614,645; and Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, N105,156,176,854.Ministry of Education got N102,907,290,833; Ministry of Health, N86,482,848,198; Ministry of Environment, N17,492,955,833; and Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, N58,082,611,977.

The increment had triggered fears that the executive might decline assent, replaying the faceoff over the 2017 budget.