Senate to pass 2021 budget on Monday

The Senate plans to hold a special session on Dec. 21 to consider and pass the 2021 appropriation bill, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan has said.

Lawan said this during Wednesday’s plenary following a motion by Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi and seconded by Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe.

According to him, the delay in the passage of the budget is to allow the Appropriation Committee to include a late request for additional expenditure from the Executive.

“The Committee on Appropriation has been working round the clock. We had planned to receive the report today (Wednesday), but there was a late request for additional expenditure from the Executive Arm of Government.

“And we want to ensure that our committee does work to produce a clean document, so it can’t present the document today.

“However, the committee has said that the report will be ready by weekend. Consequently, we will hold a special session on Monday, Dec. 21 to consider and pass the 2021 budget.

“This is in keeping with our legislative agenda of ensuring that the annual budget has a January to December cycle. We did that lin 2019, and by the grace of God, we will do it again,” Lawan said.

Meanwhile, the upper chamber also stepped down consideration for the Conference Committee Report 2021- 2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).

The request to step down consideration of the 2021 – 2023 MTEF report until Thursday, Dec. 17 was moved by the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi and seconded by Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe.