President Muhammadu Buhari in the early hours of Tuesday signed the Federal Government of Nigeria’s N21.8 trillion 2023 budget into law following last week’s passage of the Appropriation Bill 2023 by the National Assembly.
A statement by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning which was also confirmed by a media aide in the Presidency, Mallam Bashir Ahmad, indicated that the President signed the bill as indicated by the Senate President, Senator Ahmad Lawan, after a brief meeting with the President.
He stated: “President Muhammadu Buhari signed the 2023 Appropriation Bill into law, this morning. This is his last budget signing as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Senator Lawan had last last week attributed the slight delay in the passage of the Appropriation Bill 2023 partly to an “anomalous, very undesirable and unfortunate situation.”
Lawan clarified: “We are very pleased that we have been able to, in the last four years, ensure the passage of the appropriation bills in record time before every Christmas, and Mr. President had always signed before the end of the year.
“This year, particularly, is because of the anomalous, very undesirable, and unfortunate situation that we had to delay a little bit.
“You will recall that the NASS had to cut down its Christmas recess to come back on Wednesday for the sole purpose of passing the appropriation bill which we could have passed a week before. So, all the same, there’s nothing that we missed”, the lawmaker added.
In the final draft bill, it was learnt the fiscal authorities raised the country’s crude oil production to 1.69 million barrels per day and also increased the crude oil benchmark price to $75 per barrel from the previous $70 per barrel.
