President Muhammadu Buhari has on Monday signed into law the 2019 Appropriation Bill.

The signing of the appropriation bill signals the beginning of the implementation of the 2019 fiscal calendar. 

It was however, gathered that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara; the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Danjuma Goje; the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo-Udoma; and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Ita Enang were present during the signing ceremony.

Although there is no details yet on the actual size of the budget signed into law by the president, who had earlier sent a budget of N8.83 trillion to the National Assembly on December 18, 2018, but the lawmakers reviewed upwards to N8.91 trillion and passed it for his assent on April 30.

However, the highlights of the 2019 budget approved by the National Assembly included N2.09 trillion capital expenditure and a recurrent expenditure of N4.05 trillion.

The statutory transfers of N502 billion, fiscal deficit of N1.9 trillion, and special intervention of N500 billion were approved by the lawmakers, while approval for debt service was N2.25 trillion with N1.7 trillion earmarked for domestic debts, while the sum of N433 billion was provided for foreign debts.

($1=N305)

GIK/APA