Yemisi Izuora
The Lagos State House of Assembly on Monday passed the 2019 budget presented by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.
The House passed the budget after adding N21bn to the original budget of N852.317bn presented by the governor. The budget passage was delayed as Ambode and the state lawmakers could not agree on its process.
The total budget size passed by the Assembly on Monday was N873.532bn with a difference of about N21.215bn from the N852.317bn originally presented by Ambode.
The new Capital Expenditure stands at N479.691bn, while Recurrent Expenditure is N393.841bn.
It was gathered that the Assembly passed the budget after about 10 minutes of debate.
The Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, commended Yishawu and members of his committee for a thorough scrutiny of the budget.
Obasa said, “That a bill for a law to authorise the issue and appropriation of N393,841,387,020 from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for recurrent expenditure and N479, 691,073,705 from Development Fund for capital expenditure thereby totalling a budget size of N873,532,460,725 for the Year ending 31st December, 2019 be passed into law.”
The house passed the bill into law after Obasa conducted a voice-vote.
He directed the Clerk of the House, Azeez Sanni, to send a clean copy of the 2019 Appropriation Bill to the governor.
Many of the lawmakers express hope that Ambode would sign the bill into law this week.