National Assembly Begins 2018 Budget Hearing Today

The National Assembly will today (Tuesday) and Wednesday hold a public hearing on the 2018 Appropriation Bill.

The hearing is jointly organised by the Senate and House of Representatives’ Committees on Appropriations, according to an advertisement published in some national daily newspapers on Sunday.

The hearing will take place at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja, while the Federal Government’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies, stakeholders and members of the public have been invited to the meeting.

President Muhammadu Buhari had laid the Appropriation Bill before the National Assembly on November 7, 2017.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, announced last week that the National Assembly had scheduled the budget for passage on April 24, 2018.

Standing committees at the Senate had on Thursday began the submission of their reports on the MDAs to the Committee on Appropriations.

Submission of the reports will end on Thursday, according to the announcement made by President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, at the plenary last Wednesday.

The Committee on Appropriations, which is collating the reports by the sub-committees, had met on the 2018 budget last Thursday.

It was learnt that the committee discussed arrangements on the harmonisation of the reports for onward presentation and passage by the chamber.