Nigeria’s Senate President, Godswill Akpabio has said there are “verifiable justifications” by the national assembly for increasing the 2024 budget by over N1 trillion.
On Saturday, the national assembly passed the budget after increasing its size from N27.5 trillion proposed by President Bola Tinubu to N28.7 trillion.
The budget size was increased by N1.2 trillion.
Speaking with reporters after Tinubu signed the appropriation bill into law on Monday at the State House in Abuja, Akpabio said Nigerians would benefit from the budget.
He (Tinubu) also noted the slight increase in the budget, which was to take care of human capital development and take care of the needs of Nigerians, particularly the school feeding, the security situation in the country and all that and he was happy,” Akpabio said.
“Yes, the budget moved from N27 trillion to about N28 point something trillion with very verifiable justifications.
“We are excited that we are all working in one accord and Nigerians will benefit. So we have returned the country to the January to December budget.”
Akpabio said the national assembly would ensure that the budget is implemented.
“Ours is to ensure that we make sure that we monitor what goes on to ensure that yes, indeed, wanting to do a budget is one thing and another thing is for the budget to be fully implemented,” the senate president.
“We are very pleased to undertake that. I had said so even in my address and my brother, the honourable speaker can confirm that both chambers had to do a joint sitting collaboratively to even achieve the purpose you are seeing today.”
The senate president said the national assembly would not relent on its oversight functions.