The National Assembly may pass the 2024 budget of N27.5tn on Saturday as the about 541 ministries, departments, and agencies of the Federal Government conclude their defence.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Adeola Solomon, on Monday, said the Senate would resume plenary on Wednesday.
According to him, his committee has opened its secretariat, where all sub-committees of the Senate will submit their reports.
Adeola said the Senate was not going to fail on the December 31, 2023 deadline.
He said, “Today, we formally opened the secretariat to all chairmen of committees and their secretariat to start the defence of their respective budget of their MDAs before the Committee on Appropriations.
“Let me use this medium to call on all committee chairmen that we have a deadline and we will and we are working audaciously hard to ensure we meet that deadline.
“And I want to implore my colleagues, to please, be readily available to receive their reports. We don’t want to act on any ministry or agencies of the government without not having the input of their respective committees from the chairmen of the various committees.”
Adeola noted that if the chairmen of committees refused to submit their budget by the deadline, the Appropriation Committee would allocate funds to the agencies based on its discretion.
He expressed confidence that the committee on appropriation would submit its report on Thursday, adding that the budget would be passed on Saturday.