President Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday, signed the 2021 Supplementary Appropriation Bill of N982,729,695,343 into law.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President of the National Assembly (House of Representatives), Umar El-yakub, disclosed this while briefing State House Correspondents after the signing in Abuja.
The supplementary budget which totalled N982,729,695,343 will largely fund security and health concerns.
This comes one month after the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Buhari approved a draft supplementary budget of N895,842,462,917 for the year 2021.
The budget was primarily for the procurement of equipment for the military and medical infrastructure as well as COVID-19 vaccines.
Of the amount, N123.3 million is for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure while N859.3bn is for contribution to the Development Fund for the capital expenditure for the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2021.
“The President has assented the Supplementary Appropriation Bill, so now it’s Supplementary Appropriation Act, since it has been assented by Mr. President.
“Of course, you know, the Supplementary Appropriation Bill was submitted to the National Assembly and they made an expeditious consideration of the bill and was passed and transmitted in record time and Mr. President has today assented to that bill. It will come into force from today.
“As you’re all aware, the bill is targeted only at infrastructure in terms of security and medical. The bill targeted the provision of infrastructure to all the military formations; Defense, Civil Defense, Police and the DSS, all the security outfits in this country will benefit from the bill because of Mr. President’s commitment in combating crimes and indeed, insurgency and all the security challenges facing the country.
“To that end, this bill is very important and it has been assented to. Another critical area of concern is the health sector, which of course, we know with the pandemic, there is need to invest in that sector as well. Mr. President, having assented to the bill, you’ll find that molecular laboratories, about 10 of them, will be established nationwide.”