By Haruna Gimba
Nigeria’s Acting President Professor Yemi Osinbajo has on Monday signed the 2017 appropriation bill into law. Professor Osinbajo signed the budget at about 4:40 p.m. inside his conference room in the presence of the Chief of Staff to the president, Abba Kyari, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, Ministers and other top government officials.
The total budget figure signed is put at N 7.44 trillion. The acting president said his signing of the budget was a milestone in the implementation of the economic and growth plan programme put in place by President Buhari in April.
He said the processes of putting the budget in place had been smoother than that of 2016 with no allegations of errors. The National Assembly passed the 2017 Appropriations Bill on May 10 after raising from the N7.28 trillion earlier proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari in December last year, to N7.44 trillion.
