President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the 2019 appropriation bill of N8.92 trillion into law.
Signing the budget in his Aso Villa office on Monday, the president faulted the national assembly for increasing the budget submitted to it with over N90 billion.
He said the reduction of the budgetary allocations by the lawmakers would make it difficult for the government to implement its projects targeted at diversifying the economy.
However, the president said he would engage the leadership of the ninth assembly whenever it emerged on the concerns of the executive on the budget.
It would be recalled that the president had earlier proposed a budget of N8.83 trillion to the national assembly on December 18, 2018
After undergoing legislative scrutiny, the lawmakers passed the budget of N8.91 trillion, raising it by over N90.3billion on April 30.
The House considered and adopted the report of its committee on appropriation with slight amendments and a clean copy of the bill will now be sent to the president for assent.
Highlights of the 2019 budget as approved by the national assembly include the capital expenditure of N2.09 trillion, recurrent expenditure of N4.05 trillion, statutory transfers of N502billion, fiscal deficit of N1.9 trillion, and special intervention of N500billion.
The legislators also approved debt service of N2.25 trillion with N1.7 trillion for domestic debts and N433 billion foreign debts.
Present at the budget signing were the senate president, Dr. Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Mr. Ike Ekweremadu, speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, chairman, senate committee on appropriation, Mr. Danjuma Goje, the minister of budget and national planning, Mr. Udoma Udo Udoma, the senior special assistant on national assembly matters (senate), Mr. Ita Enang were present at the ceremony.
Others were the minister of finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, minister of information, Mr. Lai Mohammed, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, chief of staff to the president, Mr. Abba Kyari, secretary to the government of the federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha.
