2020: Niger State Assembly hikes budget by N7.2bn to N155.4bn

The Niger State House of  Assembly has passed into law an increased 2020 budget for the state by N7.2 billion to N155,459,814,700.82, against N148, 211, 929, 549.82, presented by the Governor, Abubakar Sanni Bello

The State governor had on 10th December 2019, presented an appropriation bill of N148.211 billion, but the assembly in their sitting on Tuesday in Minna received a report of its appropriation committee before it was passed into law.

Accordingly, the Recurrent Expenditure as passed was N70,002,224,042.12 from N69,968,379,598.00 as presented while the Capital Expenditure was N85,457,590,658.00 to replaced N78,243,549,951.

Lokogoma, however, explained that some aspects of the budget were increased to meet up with the current challenges while some things not captured for instance VAT increment by the federal government, agencies with the mega amount to run their affairs were increased during its passage.

The Deputy Speaker and member representing Bida 1, Hon. Bako Kasim Alfa who presided over the sitting who passed the budget clause by clause to ensure proper scrutiny.

After the third reading, the budget was passed while the deputy speaker urged the clerk of the house to make  three (3) clean copies to the executive to be ascended to by the governor.

The committee observed that the submission of the budget was very late and resulted into hasty scrutiny to ensure speedy passage advising that the executive should lay before lawmakers its budget first week of November every year to ensure proper scrutiny.