Senate holds emergency plenary, extends implementation of 2022 supplementary budget

The senate on Saturday held an emergency plenary session to consider the 2022 supplementary budget.

Senate President Ahmad Lawan presided over the emergency plenary.

Apart from the supplementary budget, the legislations considered were the CBN Act Amendment Bill, the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act (repeal & re-enactment) bill, and the Nigerian Weight and Measures Regulatory Agency (establishment) Bill.

At the start of the plenary, Lawan apologised for the emergency session, saying it was convened to hasten the implementation of the 2022 supplementary budget.

In March, TheCable reported that the senate passed two bills seeking to extend the implementation of the capital components of the 2022 budget till June 30.

“This is not a normal sitting day. This is a special session and I apologise for that,” Lawan said.

“Essentially, what we are trying to do here is; we have passed the supplementary budget and the implementation lapses end of June and the majority of what is in that act are roads and bridges that were destroyed by the 2022 floods.

“And of course, we need the roads to be fixed. If we don’t hasten it and the rain takes over, it may be near impossible to rehabilitate those roads and bridges.”

Lawan said the senate will pass the bill alongside the house of representatives so as to allow the implementation of the supplementary budget to continue after the stipulated June 30 deadline.

Thereafter, the bills were read for the first and second time.

After the consideration of the report, the bill for an act to amend the 2022 supplementary appropriations act and the bill for an act to amend the Central Bank of Nigeria Act were read for the third time and passed.

The implementation year for the supplementary budget was thereby extended to December 31.