The National Assembly, on Wednesday, passed the 2018 budget totaling N9.120 trillion.The budget is over N500 billion higher than the N8.612 trillion proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari to the joint session of the Assembly last year. The Chairman, Senate Appropriation Committee, Danjuma Goje, said:”The increase was done after close consultation with the executive.”
In his remarks, Senate President Bukola Saraki called for immediate implementation “so that our people will begin to benefit from the objective of the budget and the opportunities it offers.”House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara also urged the executive arm of government to ensure expeditious implementation of the budget.
The Ministry of Power, Works and Housing received N682.96 billion; Ministry of Transportation, N251.42 billion; Ministry of Defence, N157.72 billion; Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, N149 billion; Ministry of Water Resources, N147 billion; and Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, N105 billion. Ministry of Education got N102 billion; Ministry of Health, N86 billion; Ministry of Environment, N17.49 billion; and Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, N58 billion.
The Federal Government’s special intervention programme got N150 billion; grants and donor funded projects got N169.9 billion; and zonal intervention projects, N100 million. The National Assembly, the National Judicial Council, the Universal Basic Education and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) also got approval for statutory transfer worth N139.5 billion; N109 billion; and N81.9 billion.
The Ministry of Power, Works and Housing got the lion share of the 2018 budget as it got about 7.5 percent of the total budget among others.