The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, on Friday gave a breakdown of the 2022 Appropriation Bill.
She made a public presentation of the bill in Abuja a day after President Muhammadu Buhari presented a budget estimate of N16.39 trillion to the National Assembly.
The sectoral allocation of the estimated sum indicated that N2.41 trillion – representing 15 per cent – of the total figure was allocated to the defence and security sector.
This is followed by infrastructure with over N1.451 trillion – representing 8.9 per cent.
While education gulped N1.299.03 trillion – representing 7.9 per cent of the proposed budget, a sum of N820.2 billion – accounting for five per cent – was earmarked for the health sector.
The minister also gave an overview of the performance of the 2021 budget, and a global outlook of the revenue deficit in the 2022 budget, among others.
January 1 Target
While presenting the bill to the lawmakers, President Buhari had given an assurance that defence and internal security would continue to be the priority of his administration
“We remain firmly committed to the security of life, property, and investment nationwide,” he told senators and members of the House of Representatives at a joint session on Thursday. “We will continue to ensure that our gallant men and women in the armed forces, police, and paramilitary units are properly equipped, remunerated, and well-motivated.”
“The 2022 budget is also the first in our history, where Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) were clearly advised on gender-responsive budgeting. These are part of critical steps in our efforts to distribute resources fairly and reach vulnerable groups of our society.”
The President thanked the National Assembly for the quick consideration and approval of the 2022-2024 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
He, however, asked the lawmakers to continue to partner with the executive by ensuring that deliberations on the proposed 2022 budget were completed before the end of the year.
President Buhari explained that this was necessary to make the appropriation act come into effect by January 1, 2022.
According to him, the 2022 budget will be the last full-year budget to be implemented by his administration and it has been designed to build on the achievements of previous budgets.
