Buhari Approves 2020 Appropriation Bill, The Earliest Since 2008

December 17, 2019

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President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the 2020 Appropriation bill into law.

This was announced by the President via his twitter handle.

It is my pleasant duty, today, on my 77th birthday, to sign the 2020 Appropriation Bill into law. I’m pleased that the National Assembly has expeditiously passed this Bill. Our Federal Budget is now restored to a January-December implementation cycle.

— Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) December 17, 2019

The budget was sent to the President for his assent last week. This means Nigeria will operate a one-year budget circle – from January to December 2020 – for the first time in 11-years.

The National Assembly had passed the N10.59 trillion budget on December 5. N560.47 billion of the total budget is for statutory transfers while N2.7 trillion is for debt servicing.

Other items on the budget include N4,842,974,600,640 for Recurrent Expenditure; N2,465,418,006,955 for Capital Expenditure; N2.28 trillion for Fiscal Deficit and Deficit/GDP, N1.52 per cent.

The last time the Senate passed a budget before January was in 2008. But in recent years, it has gradually reduced the time frame for consideration and passage of the budget. The passage of the 2017 and 2018 budget took six months each, while the 2019 budget was passed five months after President Buhari presented the appropriation bill in December 2018.