The Senate has passed a Bill extending the implementation period for the 2023 Supplementary Appropriation Act from December 31, 2023 to March 31, 2024.
The extension is to give all Ministries, Departments and Agencies that recieved allocation in the 2023 Supplementary budget more time to execute proposed projects.
The senate amended the 2023 Appropriation Act and the 2023 Supplementary Appropriation Act to extend the implementation year of the Appropriation Act, 2023 following two bills sponsored by Bamidele Opeyemi , the Senate leader.
The Bills which were consolidated into one recieved expeditious consideration. It passed first, second and third readings during Senate Plenary on Thursday after it was deliberated by lawmakers. The bill is titled, “A bill for an Act to ammend the 2023 supplementary Appropriation Act in order to extend the implementation year from 31st t December, 2023 , to 31st March 2024, and Other related Matters.
Leading the debate, Bamidele said the 2023 Appropriation Supplementary Budget recently passed by the National Assembly as well as the recent 2023 Capital Releases to MDAs are unlikely to be utilized before December 31, 2023, due to late releases of the fund which will lapse if the Capital implementation is not extended beyond December 31, 2023.
“In view of the critical importance of some key projects nearing completion, it is expedient to grant extension of the expiration clause to avoid compounding the problem of abandoned projects given that some of the projects were not provided for in the 2024 Budget hence the need to extend the implementation year from December 31, 2023 to March 31, 2024 of both Acts”, he said.
“I, therefore urge my Colleagues to give their full support to these Bills to allow full utilization of the Capital releases in order to help reflate the economy while I move that the two Bills be referred to the Committee of the Whole for clause by clause consideration”, he urged.
The Senate amended the expiration words in the long title by the deleting the words “31st December, 2023” and substituting therefore the words “31st March, 2024. 2. Citation
Prior to the ammendment, the 2023 Appropriation Act Clause 12 stated that “in line with the provisions of Section 318 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Act runs for a period of 12 months, starting from the 1st day of January to 31st day of December, 2023”.
This Bill is now to be cited as the 2023 Supplementary Appropriation Act, (Amendment) Bill, 2023.
