National Assembly fails to pass 2023 budget

.As Senate blames Executive for errors in Appropriation bill

.Passage of 2022 Supplementary budget, Finance Bill affected

.Reps to pass 2023 Appropriation bill after Christmas

By Tunde Opalana, Haruna Salami and Tom Okpe

The hope of passing the 2023 budget yesterday was dashed as both chambers of the National Assembly failed to debate and pass the piece of legislation.

However, the Presidency was held culpable as the Senate on Thursday blamed the failure on the excuse that the 2023 Appropriation Bill presented by President Muhammadu Buhari contain unpardonable errors.

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, in his opening remarks at plenary said the upper chamber has not received the report of its Committee on Appropriations on the 2023 Appropriation Bill as scheduled.

Also, the Committees assigned the responsibility of considering the Finance Bill 2022, the 2022 Supplementary Budget and the Ways and Means are yet to submit their reports.

Advancing reasons for the failure, Lawan said “due to some challenges, we are not able to receive the report of the Committee and the main reason for this is that the Appropriation Bill came to the National Assembly with some problems.

“And when our Committees on Appropriations in the Senate and in the House started to reconcile the figures of what was done and what was presented, the problems became very obvious and they were not easy to deal with.

“Therefore, our Committees have to start a process of cleaning up the bill first. That process, of course, also engaged the executive arm because the problem came from there.

“It was concluded only yesterday (Wednesday)and our committee secretariats are not able to finish the budget for us to take today or tomorrow, nor Friday, Sunday because these are periods that are for festivities (Christians period). Monday, Tuesday are public holidays.

“Consequently, we can only receive the report and consider on Wednesday the 28th December, which is the earliest.

“So far, this 9th National Assembly has done so much to pass the previous appropriations since 2019 to date before the end of the year. I’m sure this will remain one of the cherished legacies if the 9th National Assembly.

“By the grace of God on the 28 of this month, the Senate and indeed the House will all come back to receive and consider the budget report from our committees.

“Secondly, our Committee on Finance is this morning holding a public hearing on the Finance Bill 2022 and the Finance Bill is the basis on which the Appropriation 2023 is built. We had arranged yesterday that the Finance Committee will present the report on Finance Bill hearing at 2 pm today. That of course, will not be possible.

“We also received two communication yesterday: Supplementary Budget 2022 and Ways and Means. Our Committees on Appropriations, Finance, Water Resources, Agriculture and Works and Housing will be processing the bills from today. In that respect, the Senate will adjourn immediately so that our committees start the action they are supposed to take.

“Therefore, those reports will also be available to us on Wednesday 28 December when we will be here. By the grace of God, Wednesday 28 will be a heavily loaded day for us, but I’m sure we will be able to deal with all the issues that Wednesday and our colleagues who will like to travel back to continue with the festivities with their families can still make it the following day.”

The Senate President, however, advised the executive on the bills before the legislature – the Ways and Means, the Supplementary Appropriation, the Finance Bill, that whoever is invited to come and explain, give information or any details for the National Assembly to understand “must do so because it is not our work alone.

“We want to do our work thoroughly. We want to understand whatever we are going to deal with and we want our decisions to be based on information. Time is of essence. Just as we are going to sacrifice part of our festive period to be back here. Nobody should tell us that they are in their places because it is Christmas. They should be available with every necessary information.”

On that note, Lawan stood down all items slated on the Order Paper of Thursday and wished his colleagues “Merry Christmas and prosperous, stable and peaceful 2023 while appreciating them for their support, cooperation, commitment and dedication.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives will next week Wednesday, 28 December, pass the N20.5 trillion budget (Appropriation bill) for 2023 financial year.

Speaker of the House, Rep Femi Gbajabiamila made this disclosure on Thursday as the House adjourned plenary for Christmas holiday, to next Wednesday.

The Green Chamber initially planned to pass the N20.5trillion budget on Thursday before proceeding on their Christmas/New Year break but it was postponed to tidy up some key issues.

Gbajabiamila while announcing a slight change in the plan, urged members to adjourn for Christmas but to return on December 28 for the singular assignment of passing the budget.

“We just have to come back on Wednesday. We will come back for the one item of passing the budget; then, we can proceed on break fully,” he said.

Also, the House mandated its Committee on Banking and Currency, Financial Crimes and Telecommunications to investigate the alleged sharp practices and abuses by fintech and online mobile digital loan apps and companies in Nigeria and report within four weeks.

This resolution followed the adoption of a motion of urgent national importance moved by Alhaji Satomi from Borno State.

Moving the motion, Satomi said the proliferation of online loan apps across Nigeria by some fraudulent and unscrupulous profiteers was affecting many low income Nigerians.

The lawmaker said the low-income earners are coerced to borrow and get trapped in the web of sham loan apps hosted on Google Play Store by individuals and companies to swindle them.

He said the COVID-19 pandemic affected many economies including Nigeria as jobs were lost and incomes were affected, due to lockdowns, restrictions on movement and face-to-face interactions sped up the pace of digitalisation of financial services and the infiltration of some unscrupulous unregulated financial service operators.

According to Satomi, these predatory lending apps are disguised as platforms where unsuspecting members of the public are promised access quick loans with no collateral except provision of bank verification number, (BVN).

“Victims are expected to repay loans at astronomical interest rates within 3-7 days as against the 91 to 365 days claim on Google Play store which has over 83.07% market share in Nigeria, he said.

The lawmaker observed that most of these loan apps or companies and individuals operate with no regulation by government, expired licenses and in some cases, without licenses.

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He expressed concern that searches for registration status of loan apps in Nigeria from the Corporate Affairs Commission, (CAC) shows that founding directors of such apps or companies were foreign nationals without required license to operate volume of financial transactions and illegally, operating in the country.

“The operations of Kash-Kash with a hosted operating account under the name Super Car Universal Limited with a certain commercial bank in Nigeria where Kash-Kash, carries out activities of the loan app, such as the exorbitant interest rates they collected from customers and defamatory messages sent to contacts of their customers when they missed their repayment date.

“Such account holder did not have the required license to operate as a money lender, which led the Commercial Bank to close the first account, but such operations were moved to another account named Speedy Choice which is still operational and managed by the same people who managed the previous account,” Satomi said.

He further explained that many of such online loan apps operating in Nigeria disbursing loans to customers with no collateral and defaulters are always sent threatening messages and Loan apps and other fintech products can be used for money-laundering and other forms of illicit financial flows (IFF).