By Ikechukwu Okaforadi and Musa Adamu
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, has said the National Assembly will pass the 2020 budget on November 28.
Lawan, made this known during plenary on Tuesday, during which he said the Senate committees have concluded their work on the budget defence with Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
He therefore asked the Senate Committee on Appropriations to speed up action and produce its report so the bill can be passed by the end of the month.
“All the committees have done their work so well within the defined parameters and therefore we expect the appropriations committee to galvanise into action and produce the report to be laid here on the 26th November – next two weeks, before the Senate. And I believe this will be the same thing in our sister chamber, the House of Representatives, so that we are able to pass the 2020 appropriation bill on the 28th of November,” he said.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on October 8 presented the bill to a joint session of the National Assembly. He proposed N10.33 trillion for national spending for the year 2020.
Lawmakers of both chambers, thereafter, deliberated on the provisions of the budget in separate plenary sessions. While some hailed the president’s propositions, others had one or two issues with some aspects of the bill.
The budget was, thereafter, referred to the Senate Committee on Appropriation which spread the budget across the committees who held budget defence sessions with MDAs to defend their budgets.
Having concluded the budget defence sessions, the various committees will submit their reports to the Appropriations Committee – which will then produce a general report before the bill is passed.
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