The Niger State House of Assembly in North Central Nigeria, has passed into law the 2021 appropriation bill of a total of N153,412,621,775.90 from N151,240,621,776 as presented earlier with additional N2.2 billion.
Presenting the report at the plenary by the House Committee Chairman on Appropriation, Bashir Lokogoma, stated that after proper scrutiny of the budget, N72,583,201,831.30 was presented as recurrent expenditure from N72,503,201,831 for the House approval.
Lokogoma said that ”the capital stood at N80,829,419,944.90 from N78,737,419,945.00 which was presented by the executive.”
He explained that the state High court is ”to get N400 million from N350 million while the Office of Auditor General to take N600 million from N30 million which make up the recurrent figures respectively.”
The committee chairman further gave the breakdown of the capital expenditure as administrative sector N8,703,607,618.50, economic sector N54,591,303,577.68 while Law and Justice has N1.3 billion as presented and Social sector got N16,234,508,748.72.
He observed and recommended that the current budget structure is complicated making it difficult to trace a particular capital allocation for scrutiny and for oversight.
The Speaker, Abdullahi Wuse, applauded the committee for a job well done and directed the Clark to provide five clean copies to the Governor for assent.
The Deputy Speaker, Jibrin Baba represented the Speaker at the presentation and passage of the bill.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
