Senate debates Buhari’s N895.84bn supplementary budget today

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has said that the upper chamber will on Wednesday (today) consider the Federal Government’s N895.84bn supplementary budget.

Lawan stated this on Tuesday during plenary after the senate received the report of the Committee on Appropriation on the Supplementary Appropriation Bill, 2021.

The Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, Senator Jibrin Barau, had last week pleaded with the upper chamber to allow the joint committees of the Senate and House of Representatives come up with a harmonised report on the supplementary appropriations bill to facilitate its eventual presentation on today.

Jibrin, in keeping with his request for time extension, finally laid the report on the supplementary Appropriation Bill, 2021, before the upper chamber during plenary on Tuesday.

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had penultimate week, transmitted the Supplementary Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly for consideration and approval.

He had explained that the proposed amount would be used to fund the COVID-19 vaccine programme, fund health related expenditures for treatment of additional 50,000 patients under the Nigeria Comprehensive AIDS Program in states.

He had also said the part of the fund would be used to procure additional equipment captured in this year’s capital expenditure on defence and security to tackle prevalent security challenges across the country.