President Buhari Presents 2022 Budget To National Assembly

President Buhari is set to present the 2022 Budget to the joint National Assembly.

GoldenNewsNg reports that all is set for President Muhammadu Buhari to present the 2022 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly today (Thursday).

President Buhari had in a letter to both the Senate and House of Representatives on Tuesday informed the lawmakers of his visit to the legislative complex to present the Appropriation Bill.

The lawmakers have spent most part of the week preparing for the event.

Part of the preparations was the finalisation of the 2022-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP).

President  Buhari had sought the approval of the lawmakers to make some changes in the proposed Framework and one of the changes was the increase of the Federal Government’s total expenditure for 2022 from N13.98 trillion to N16.45 trillion.

As it stands, the estimated budget expenditure is expected to be about N16.39 trillion – according to the revised MTEF approved by the Senate on Wednesday.

The president is expected to arrive at the National Assembly and lay the budget before the lawmakers at noon. The event is expected to take about an hour.

Mr Buhari is also expected to address, in his speech, the 2020 budget performance, insecurity across the country, recent economic crisis with regards to crude oil price and the COVID-19 pandemic, among others.

Security has been beefed up at the National Assembly complex in readiness for the arrival of the president and his entourage.

Both chambers will carry on with their plenary sessions from 10:00 a.m. until about 11:30 a.m. and thereafter converge at the lower chamber to await the president’s arrival.

Several measures have also been put in place with regards to COVID-19 safety protocols.

GoldenNewsNg  will ensure to bring to you live updates of the budget presentation.