Yemisi Izuora/Ijeoma Agudosi
The National Assembly has passed the 2016 budget thus paving the way for massive spending designed to boost growth in the country grappling with the global oil price crash.
The Senate and the House of Representatives approved the budget, which now needs to be signed into law by president Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari announced the record six-trillion-naira ($30bn) budget in December, promising to stimulate growth and build infrastructure.
But the proposal became engulfed in controversy after civil groups pointed out costly errors that opened the door to graft, including the same purchases for vehicles, computers and furniture multiplied 24 times, totalling 46.5 billion naira.
“Now it is the job of the executive to ensure full implementation of the budget,” Senate President Bukola Saraki said, adding that the size of the budget has been marginally reduced from 6.08 trillion naira to 6.06 trillion.
Nigeria is suffering from a more than 60 percent drop in oil prices since 2014, depleting the import-dependent nation’s foreign reserves and spurring a currency crisis.
President Buhari however hopes his expansionary budget will inject much-needed cash into the country to develop sorely lacking infrastructure and wean itself off oil.
Buhari has focused on a sweeping anti-graft campaign designed to stop endemic corruption and wasteful spending in the country. Last month, the country’s finance ministry said it had saved millions of dollars for the cash-strapped government by removing more than 20,000 “ghost workers” from the state payroll.
