NASS Approves N23.679bn For Outgoing And New Lawmakers, Aides

NASS

The National Assembly on Tuesday, approved the payment of the sum of N23.679 billion severance package for outgoing Senators and Members of the House of Representatives as well as their legislative aides.

Substantial part of the money is for the induction and inauguration of Senators-elect and Members-elect of the 9th National Assembly.

The amount was part of the total sum of N8.907 trillion expenditure approved by the parliament for 2019 fiscal year.

The amount is N17 billion above the sum of N8.83 trillion proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari to the joint session of the National Assembly.

From the total sum of N502.059 billion approved for statutory transfers, National Assembly gets N128 billion; National Judicial Council gets N110 billion; Niger Delta gets N100.189 billion; Universal Basic Education gets N112.471 billion; INEC gets N45 billion, Public Complaint Commission gets N4.399 billion while National Human Rights Commission gets N1.5 billion, respectively.

According to the budget proposal submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari, N8.83 trillion of the 2019 aggregate expenditure comprises: Recurrent Costs of N4.04 trillion; Debt Service of N2.14 trillion; Statutory Transfers of about N492.36 billion; Sinking Fund of N120 billion which will be used to retire maturing bond to local contractors and Capital Expenditure of N2.031 trillion including capital supplementation but excluding the capital component of Statutory Transfers.

Under the recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, the Presidency is to get the sum of N33.057 million; Ministry of Interior gets N564.223 billion; Education gets N463.396 billion; National Security Adviser gets N86.840 billion; Petroleum Resource gets N67.851 billion; Foreign Affairs gets N66.107 billion; Secretary to the Government of the Federation gets N63.400 billion while Agriculture and Rural Development gets N57.677 billion.