The Niger House of Assembly on Tuesday passed into law the 2019 Supplementary Appropriation Bill of N30.247 billion.
The House passed the bill following the presentation of the report of the committee on Appropriation.
Presenting the report, Chairman of the committee, Bashir Lokogoma, said that the bill was necessitated by the inflow of additional funds not envisaged during the preparation of the 2019 budget.
Lokogoma said that some of the expected additional inflow include Commercial Bank loan of N5 billion, Islamic Development Bank loan of N15.392billion, refund of tax from FCT pegged at N6.454 billion and N1.5 billion bond among others.
According to him, the bill had recurrent expenditure of N2.98 billion while capital expenditure was pegged at N27.262 billion.
“Some overheads and capital heads require additional funds to meet additional activities and get projects completed in 2019 and therefore the need for supplementary approriation to provide required funds became necessary.
“The committee observed that supplementary budget affected overhead and capital expenditure. All the capital projects are viable and in line with the priority of the government,” he added.
The Speaker, Abdullahi Wuse, thereafter directed the Clerk of the House to forward five copies of the bill to the governor for his assent.
The 2019 budget size now stands at N194.247 billion as against N164.5 billion initially approved.
In a related development, the House also passed its 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework following the report of its committee on Appropriation. (NAN)