The National Assembly has made significant corrections to the 2025 Appropriation Bill, which was passed by the Senate and House of Representatives just last week.
The corrections were necessary due to errors discovered in the capital and recurrent expenditure line items.
Notably, the total budget size remains unchanged at N54.99 trillion, but there has been a substantial reallocation of funds.
Specifically, the capital expenditure has been reduced by over N500 billion, while recurrent spending has increased by the same amount.
This means the new capital allocation stands at N23.439 trillion, and recurrent expenditure has risen to N13.588 trillion.
Capital expenditure has taken a hit, decreasing by over N500 billion, while recurrent expenditure has received a boost of the same amount.
The two chambers, at their plenary sessions on Tuesday, made corrections to the figures previously passed for some ministries, departments, and agencies, with some figures increasing, while others were reviewed downward.
Rep. Francis Waive (APC, Delta), the Chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, who presented the motion for the rescission of the approved session items, said the action was necessary because “the Joint Appropriation Committee noticed errors in the figures earlier passed.”
He said: “The final figure of N54.99 trillion, as well as the statutory transfer of N3.64 trillion and N14.32 trillion, remain unchanged.
“The recurrent (non-debt) expenditure of N13.56 trillion and the capital budget of N23.44 trillion were affected.”
The budget estimates for several key agencies were adjusted in the document, including the Ministries of Defence and Police Affairs, National Pension Commission, Universities Pensions, Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (civilian pensions), Pension Transition Arrangement Directorate, and a few others.
The lawmaker said that the budget proposals for several government institutions, including the Presidency, Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, Office of the National Security Adviser, and Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, were increased for the 2025 fiscal year.
Additionally, various federal ministries, such as Agriculture and Food Security, Works, Labour and Employment, Transportation, and Education, also received budget boosts, he said.
The Delta lawmaker stressed that correcting errors identified in the document, compiled by the Joint Committee, was a key responsibility of the House, and importantly, noted that these corrections and passage would not alter the overall N54.99 trillion budget size.
Persecondnews had reported that the National Assembly on Thursday, February 13, 2025, approved a N54.9 trillion federal government’s budget for the 2025 financial year, further increasing the initial proposal by N746 billion from N54.2 trillion.
Prior to that, President Bola Tinubu had on Wednesday February 5, 2025 written to the National Assembly, requesting an increase in the initial budget proposal from N49.7 trillion to N54.2 trillion.
The President attributed the budget review to the significant additional revenue generated by some key government agencies.
Author
Leave a comment