Supplementary budget: N’assembly gets N70bn to ‘support’ new lawmakers

The house of representatives, on Thursday, passed a bill seeking to amend the supplementary appropriation act 2022.

The executive bill, which was given accelerated passage, followed the adoption of a report presented by Julius Ihonvbere, the majority leader.

While speaking on the floor of the house, Benjamin Kalu, deputy speaker, said the “challenges” of the senate and house of representatives members “have been captured by these particular provisions that are being presented to us so that your welfare and your offices that are not functioning well will be taken care of”.

President Bola Tinubu had asked the lawmakers to amend the N819 billion supplementary appropriation act 2022 and extract N500 billion to allow the federal government to provide palliatives to cushion the effects of petrol subsidy removal on Nigerians.

The national assembly in December 2022, passed a supplementary budget of N819 billion for the 2022 fiscal year to enable the federal government to cushion the effects of flood and complete critical projects — with the following breakdown of allocation: agriculture, N69 billion; works, N704 billion; FCTA, N30 billion; and water resources – N15.5 billion.

At the time, the legislature also extended the implementation of the capital components of the 2022 supplementary budget to March 31, 2023.

In May 2023, the national assembly further passed an amendment to the 2022 supplementary budget to extend its implementation to December 2023.

BREAKDOWN OF THE AMENDED SUPPLEMENTARY BUDGET

The breakdown of the amended supplementary appropriation act 2022 passed on Thursday is given below:

• N500 billion for palliatives and other capital expenditures to cushion the effects of the removal of the petrol subsidy.
• N185,236,937,815 is allocated to the ministry of works and housing to address the impacts of the severe flooding experienced in the country in 2022 on road infrastructure across the six geopolitical zones
• N19,200,000,000 is earmarked for the federal ministry of agriculture to ameliorate the massive destruction to farmlands across the country during the severe flooding experienced last year.
• N35 billion to National Judicial Council.
• N10 billion to federal capital territory administration (FCTA) for critical projects.
• N70 billion to the national assembly to support the working conditions of new members.