Niger lawmakers pass 2023 budget with additional N5bn

Legislators of the Niger State House of Assembly have passed the 2023 Appropriation Bill of over N243 billion as against over N238 billion earlier presented by the State Governor, Alh Abubakar Sani Bello into law.

This shows an increase of about N5 billion to the Bill.

The decision followed the report of the House committee on Appropriation presented by the committee chairman and member representing Wushishi constituency, Muhammed Bashir Lokogoma.

According to him, passing the budget was very essential for the take-off of a new financial year, noting, “with the passage, Niger State is ready to run the government in 2023 with additional N5 billion into the budget as presented.”

The approved capital expenditure in the budget will gulp over N152 billion while the recurrent expenditure is over N91 billion.

The committee chairman further observed that the budget structure is complicated which has made it extremely difficult to trace a particular capital allocation for scrutiny.

Consequently, the lawmakers unanimously called on the executive arm to ensure that the budget is brought before the House at least three months before the end of the year for proper scrutiny.