Lagos Assembly passes N1.046t 2018 appropriation bill

Lalong, Rivers House sign budgets into law
The Lagos State House of Assembly yesterday passed the state’s 2018 Appropriation bill of N1, 046 trillion into law.

This followed the adoption of the report and recommendations of the House Ad-hoc Committee on Budget and Economic Planning, headed by Gbolahan Yishawu as the House resolution.

It approved N347 billion as recurrent expenditure and N699 billion as capital expenditure from the Development Revenue Fund for the year ending December 31, 2018.

Presenting the committee report, Yishawu said efforts should be made to reduce the state overhead cost.

The lawmakers, who commended the committee for its timeliness, however, called for urgent modification of the state government’s Private Public Partnership (PPP) policy.

Acting Chairman, House Committee on Physical Planning and Urban Development, Setonji David said: “There are so many arrangements going on in PPP that the House does not know about.”

Deputy Majority Leader, Hon. Muyiwa Jimoh posited that PPP should be on its own and should not operate under any ministry.

The Assembly therefore passed the appropriation bill after its Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, conducted a voice vote on each of the sectorial allocations for ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

Obasa then directed the Acting Clerk of the House, Azeez Sanni, to send a clean copy of the bill to Governor Akinwnmi Ambode for his assent.

In a related development, the Plateau State Governor Simon Bako Lalong yesterday signed the 2018 appropriation bill of N145 billion into law.

He had presented the 2018 budget estimate of N145 billion to the state House of Assembly in December last year.

Speaking, he said: “We will ameliorate the challenges being faced in all critical sectors of our economy and provide the avenue for sustainable livelihood for our people.

Meanwhile, the Rivers State House of Assembly has passed the 2018 Appropriation Bill of N510 billion into Law, as presented by Governor Nyesom Wike.

The passage of the Bill followed the presentation of the Appropriation Committee report yesterday.

Representative of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Constituency I, Christian Ahiaknwo, on behalf of Chairman of the Committee, Ikunyi Owaji-Ibani, said the committee recommended that the budget be passed as presented.