The Senate will on Wednesday commence debate on the 2018 budget presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly penultimate Tuesday.
Senate President Bukola Saraki, who disclosed this yesterday at the plenary, said the debate would last for two legislative days (Wednesday and Thursday).
The implementation of the budget, amounting to N8.61trillion, with N3.49 trillion for recurrent and N2.41 trillion for capital expenditure, is expected to take effect from January next year.
Saraki urged his colleagues to indicate interest on when they would want to make their contributions, adding that copies of the budget would be made available to the lawmakers before the commencement of the debate.
Addressing journalists, the spokesperson of the Senate, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, said the laying of the budget by the president to the joint session was its first reading.
He said the debate would be on the general principles of the budget and that afterwards, it would scale through second reading.
“They are already processing copies of the budget for distribution to us,” he said.
