Senate Receives 2020 Budget Final Report

The Senate has received the final report for the 2020 budget.

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Jubril Barau, presented the final report on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday for consideration and passage.

The lawmakers will review the recommendations of the report on another legislative day before passing the budget.

The Senate, last week, extended the consideration and passage of the 2020 budget by a week.

Mr Jubril had requested for more time to present the final report. He said the committee had collated all the reports of the subcommittees and had analysed the reports.

The Senate initially planned to pass the budget on November 28.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, thereafter, gave the committee an additional week to finalise legislative work.

President Muhammadu Buhari had on October 8 presented the bill to a joint session of the National Assembly. He proposed N10.33 trillion for national spending for the year 2020.

Lawmakers of both chambers, thereafter, deliberated on the provisions of the budget in separate plenary sessions. While some hailed the president’s propositions, others had one or two issues with some aspects of the bill.

The budget was then referred to the Senate Committee on Appropriation which spread the budget across the committees who held budget defence sessions with MDAs to defend their budgets.

Having concluded the budget defence sessions, the various committees will submit their reports to the Appropriations Committee – which will then produce a general report before the bill is passed.