As federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) are expected to begin their defense for the 2020 budget on Wednesday, the Senate and House of Representatives’ committees in the National Assembly are to work jointly to enhance speedy passage of the appropriation bill.
President Muhammadu Buhari had presented a budget of N10.33 trillion for the 2020 fiscal year, with capital spending allocations to key sectors.
The Works and Housing sector has the highest allocation of N262 billion; the Power sector: N127 billion; Transportation: N123 billion; Universal Basic Education Commission: N112 billion; Defence: N100 billion; Zonal Intervention Projects: N100 billion; Agriculture and Rural Development: N83 billion, and Water Resources with N82 billion.
Other sectors include Niger Delta Development Commission: N81 billion; Education: N48 billion;Health: N46 billion;Industry, Trade and Investment: N40 billion;North East Development Commission: N38 billion; Interior: N35 billion;Social Investment Programmes: N30 billion;Federal Capital Territory: N28 billion, and Niger Delta Affairs Ministry allocated N24 billion respectively.
Also in the 2020 budget, the sum of N556.7 billion was provided for Statutory Transfers to include N125 billion for the National Assembly; N110 billion for the Judiciary;N37.83 billion for the North East Development Commission (NEDC);N44.5 billion for the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF);N111.79 billion for the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC); and N80.88 billion for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), which is now supervised by the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.
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Buhari had said the budgetary allocation to the National Human Rights Commission increased from N1.5 billion to N2.5 billion to enable the Commission to perform its functions more effectively.
Budget process in Nigeria involves the budget planning, enactment, implementation and monitoring.
A medium term expenditure framework (MTEF) and fiscal strategy paper (FSP) is submitted to the legislature by the executive before the budget estimates are finally presented to a joint session of NASS by the President.
There is a general understanding that the method is constrained by unnecessary delays, incompetence resulting from capacity gaps from both the Legislative and Executive operators of the process.
During budget defense, Heads of government ministries and agencies appear before Senate and House of Representatives’ committees to proffer the performance level of their previous budgetary allocations.
