After a meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, President Muhammadu Buhari has assented the 2021 Supplementary Appropriation Bill of N982,729,695,343 into law.

This disclosure was made by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Mr Umar El-Yakub.

El-Yakub said that the 2021 Supplementary Appropriation Act will largely focus on funding security and health concerns, adding that the budget is targeted at the provision of military hardware and COVID-19 vaccines.

The budget is expected to come into effect from July 26.

Buhari’s assent to the law is expected to  facilitate the critical procurement of security equipment as well as the establishment of molecular laboratories, oxygen plants, and procurement of vaccines, particularly the J&J COVID-19 vaccines.

Recall that the appropriation bill which was submitted to the National Assembly by the executive in June is expected to be funded largely through new borrowing.

In June, the president had communicated separately to the leadership of both chambers asking the federal lawmakers in both Senate and House of Representatives to approve a 2021 Supplementary Budget.

Buhari sent an estimate of N895,842,465,917 for consideration explaining that the budget was to fund the procurement of equipment for the military, procurement and administration of COVID-19 vaccines, and provision of additional funds for the Public Service Wage Adjustment in health and other sectors.

After the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Appropriation had subsequently worked on the President’s request, a joint session of the lawmakers was held on July 7 for the presentation where the chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Jibrin Barau, as well as his counterpart in the House, Muktar Betara, submitted their reports.

The lawmakers went on to pass an increased sum of N982,729,695,343 as the approved 2021 Supplementary Budget estimate.

Of the figure, N123,332,174,164 was for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, while N859,397,521,179 was for contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure for the year ending on December 31, 2021.