President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has signed the second 2023 supplementary appropriation bill into law, totaling N2,176,791,286,033.
The bill, which had recently been passed by the National Assembly, sparked controversy over provisions for a presidential yacht and over N6 billion allocated for vehicles to the State House.
The signing took place during a brief event in the President’s office at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
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It was witnessed by prominent figures, including President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio; Speaker, House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas; Senate Leader, Sen Opeyemi Bamidele; Chairman Senate Committee on Finance, Sen Olamilekan Adeola; Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Abubakar Kabir Abubakar; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume; Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu and Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Services, Zachs Adedeji.
The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, had announced after the federal cabinet meeting that the supplementary budget would be used to finance urgent issues including N605 billion for national defense and security.
According to him, “This is to sustain the gains made in security and these are funds that are needed by the security agencies before the year runs out.”
Bagudu said the sum of N300bn was also provided to repair bridges including Eko and Third Mainland bridges as well as construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of many roads nationwide before the return of the rainy season.
He added that the sum of N200bn was provisioned for seed, agricultural input, supplies, agricultural implements and infrastructure in order to support expansion of production.
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The minister said the sum of N210 billion was equally provided for the payment of six months’ provisional wage award as agreed during the negotiation with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC).
He recalled that the federal government agreed to pay N35,000 each to about 1.5 million employees of the federal government.
According to him, the payment would cover September, October, November and December 2023.
Bagudu said N400bn was also approved as cash transfer payments.
“You may recall that the federal government secured $800m loan from the World Bank to pay cash transfers of N25,000 to 15 million households. The $800 million is for two months, October and November. The President graciously approved that an additional month should be funded by the federal government and that is what this N100bn is for,” he added.
The minister said N100bn had also been provided for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in order to support urgent and immediate capital expenditure works that could enhance the infrastructure in the city.
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Bagudu said N18 billion was equally provided for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to support the conduct the coming elections in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo states.
He said the sum of N5.5 billion was provided for the funding of the takeover of the student loans board as well as N8 billion for the take-off grant of new ministries.
The minister added that the sum of N200bn was provided as capital supplementation to deal with urgent requests that had been made to Mr. President from various parts of the country.
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