THE 2023 Appropriation Bill, which amounts to N21.83 trillion, has been signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He signed the legislation in Abuja’s Council Chambers of the State House.
The measure, which represents a rise of N1.32 trillion from Buhari’s N20.51 trillion budget request, was enacted by the National Assembly six days prior to this incident.
A breakdown of the budget shows that N967.5 billion will be used for statutory transfers, N6.6 trillion will be used to pay down debt, N8.3 trillion for recurrent expenses, and N5.9 trillion will be used for capital expenditures.
Two weeks ago, the Senate President postponed consideration of the 2023 Appropriations Bill due to issues found in it.
The N21.83 trillion budget for 2023 kept recurrent spending at about N8.27 trillion while increasing capital spending from N5.35 trillion to N5.9 trillion and debt servicing from N6.31 trillion to N6.6 trillion.
The Federal Ministry of Defence received N285 billion, the Federal Ministry of Health got N134.9 billion, the Federal Ministry of Power is allocated N195.5 billion, and the Federal Ministry of Education received N153.7 billion as some of the major capital allocations.
Earlier this year, the House of Representatives contributed to the end of an eight-month university lecturers’ strike by promising to increase their welfare benefits and make revitalization funds available to upgrade the facilities and operations of federal universities.
The 2023 Appropriation Bill includes N300 billion for the Tertiary Institutions Revitalization Fund, N170 billion for pay renegotiation, and N10.2 billion for the university pension, including arrears.
