2025 budget defence begins Tuesday- Reps

0 9 1 minute read

The House of Representatives will begin the 2025 budget defence session with Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government on Tuesday.

The House will harmonise reports from the exercise on Wednesday, January 22, 2025, with the Committee on Appropriations expected to lay its report at a special session slated for January 31.

The Chairman, Committee on Appropriations, Abubakar Bichi, disclosed this in an interview with journalists after the inaugural meeting of the panel on Monday.

Housing Reporters reports that President Bola Tinubu presented the N49.74tn 2025 Appropriation Bill before a joint session of the National Assembly on December 18, 2024.

The Green Chamber, 24 hours later passed the proposed budget through a second reading and referred it to the Appropriations Committee with all Standing Committees as sub-committees for further legislative input.

Addressing journalists at the event held at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja, the lawmaker who represents Bichi Federal Constituency, Kano State, assured Nigerians that the exercise would be carried out in the interest of Nigerians of all walks of life.

“We just had the inauguration meeting today for the 2025 Appropriation Bill. You are all aware that the President has presented the budget to us and by tomorrow, January 7, we will start the budget defence with all the MDAs.

“From tomorrow (Tuesday) to January 17, we are going to do our budget defence and we will likely harmonise on January 22 and God’s willing by January 31, we are going to lay our reports.

“We are going to study the budget (proposal). All our committees will study it. I believe the budget is for Nigerians, for our development – infrastructure and other important things and I am sure Nigerians will be happy with it,” Bichi said.

The Kano lawmaker also pledged the readiness of the parliament to scrutinise the proposed budgetary expenditure, revenues and other issues contained in the 2025 Appropriation Bill.