Senate set to consider 2021 Supplementary Budget of N895.8bn

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has said that the Senate will on Wednesday, consider President Muhammadu Buhari’s N895.8 billion supplementary budget request.

Lawan made the disclosure during Tuesday’s plenary after the upper chamber received the report of the Committee on Appropriations on the Supplementary Appropriation Bill, 2021.

The consideration of the request from the Executive by the Senate is an indication that the supplementary budget would be passed tomorrow.

The Appropriations Committee Chairman, Sen. 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.

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.

It was reported that Buhari had on June 22, transmitted a supplementary Appropriation Bill for N895.842,465,917 billion to the National Assembly for consideration and approval.

He 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.

“We will also procure additional equipment captured in this year’s capital expenditure on Defence and Security to tackle prevalent security challenges across the country.”