Buhari signs 2021 Budget

As 2020 winds down today, President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the 2021 Appropriation Act of N13.5 trillion.

He appended his signature to the document at a short ceremony inside the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday.

At the ceremony were Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo; Senate President Ahmad Lawan; Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila; Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha; Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, and a few senior government officials.

It is hoped that the signing of the Budget this early will return the nation to a January-December fiscal and budgetary cycle.

The National Assembly had on December 21, 2020, passed the 2021 Appropriation Bill with an aggregate expenditure of N13, 588, 027,886, 175 trillion.

It comprises total Capital Supplementation of N1,060,751,051,650 and total Capital Expenditure of N4,125,149,354,222, while Statutory Transfer stands at N496,528,471,273; recurrent Expenditure of N5,641,970,060,680 and projected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of three percent.

The National Assembly also provided the sum of N3,324,380,000 trillion for debt servicing.

The lawmakers increased the budget estimate by the sum of N505, 607,317,942 from the estimate of N13, 082, 420, 568,233 presented to the joint sitting of National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari on October 8, 2020.