Niger Assembly Passes 2022 Appropriation Bill, Increases Budget Size by N13bn

Laleye Dipo in Minna

The Niger State House of Assembly has passed the state’s 2022 Appropriation Bill that was sent to it in October by Governor Abubakar Sani Bello.

The lawmakers increased the budget estimate from N198 billion to over N211 billion.

The Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, Mr. Mohammed Bashir Lokogoma, who presented the appropriation bill to the Committee of the Whole House on Tuesday, explained that the increase was based on the anticipation that the state would experience improved revenue generations, especially capital receipts, refunds, statutory allocation and internally generated revenue in 2022.

The budget is made up of recurrent expenditure of N80 billion and N130 billion for capital estimates.

The committee’s report was overwhelmingly passed by the lawmakers, who asked the executive to ensure that the budget is implemented in the interest of the overall development of the state.

Speaker of the House, Mr. Abdullahi Bawa Wuse, commended his colleagues for what he called “the painstaking efforts put into considering appropriation bill” and advised that same efforts should be put into overseeing the implementation of the budget.

Wuse, therefore, directed the Clerk of the House to prepare a clean copy of the bill and forward same to the governor for his assent.