19th February ,2025
Taiwo Ogunniyi
The National Assembly has finalized corrections to the 2025 Appropriation Bill and is set to transmit the revised version to President Bola Tinubu for immediate assent.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio disclosed that the adjustments, made to rectify errors in capital and recurrent allocations, do not affect the total budget size of N54.9 trillion. However, over N500 billion has been shifted from capital to recurrent expenditure.
“The corrections were necessary to ensure accuracy in the figures before transmitting the bill to the President. It is better we identify and correct these errors now rather than amending the budget after it has been signed into law,” said Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Adeola Olamilekan (Ogun West), explained that the revised figures now put recurrent expenditure at N13.588 trillion, while capital expenditure stands at N23.439 trillion. The adjustments were made after a joint review by the Senate and House of Representatives Appropriations Committees.
Key ministries, departments, and agencies affected in the recurrent expenditure adjustments include the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Police Affairs, Military Pensions and Gratuities, the Department of State Security, and various pension offices.
For capital expenditure, adjustments were made to allocations for the Presidency, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Federal Ministry of Works, Federal Ministry of Education, and the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, among others.
Following the Senate’s adoption of the corrections, Akpabio directed Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti Central) to move a motion for an adjournment to allow the Clerk of the National Assembly to transmit the corrected version of the bill to President Tinubu without delay.
