The Nasarawa State House of Assembly has revised the previously approved 2025 Appropriation Bill from N402.5 billion to N384.3 billion.
The Speaker of the House, Danladi Jatau, announced the passage of the revised budget during an emergency sitting in Lafia on Friday.
He said, “A Bill to Authorise the Issuance from the Consolidated Revenue Funds of the State, the Total Sum of N384,317,843,592.03 only as the total budget size for the year 2025, is read for a third time and passed.”
The Speaker explained that the reduction from N402.5 billion to N384.3 billion followed the Executive’s recommendation that the earlier budget would exceed the state’s expected revenue inflow for 2025.
“It is on this premise that this House agreed with the reasons submitted by the Executive to amend the adjusted areas in the 2025 Appropriation Bill as highlighted below.
“The need for the State to achieve at least 85 per cent budget performance to qualify for the transparency grant and to strengthen systems to ensure the budget is implementable.
“The ongoing tax reform by the Federal Government is also expected to affect the revenue inflow of most Northern States, including Nasarawa State,” he added.
Additionally, the state government highlighted the impact on some international intervention programmes as part of the reasons for the budget revision.
Speaker Jatau then confirmed, “We hereby pass into law the Bill to Authorise the Issuance from the Consolidated Revenue Funds of the State, the Total of N384,317,843,592.03 as the total budget size.”
The budget includes N160,667,777,898.56 for recurrent expenditure and N223,650,065,693.47 for capital expenditure.
He further directed the Clerk of the House to prepare a clean copy of the bill for Governor Abdullahi Sule’s assent.
The Speaker commended the Honourable members for prioritising the state’s needs by suspending their holidays to attend to state matters and urged them to maintain this commitment.
Contributors, including Hajarat Ibrahim, Solomon Yakubu Akwashiki, and Mohammed Isimbabi, supported the need for the bill to pass the third reading, citing the importance of the budget for the socio-economic status of the state.
Earlier, the Majority Leader of the House, Suleiman Azara, moved a motion for the bill to pass the third reading, while the Minority Leader, Luka Zhekaba, seconded the motion.
The House unanimously passed the budget into law.
It should be recalled that Governor Abdullahi Sule presented a budget of N382.5 billion, titled the “Budget of Economic Growth and Stability”, to the House on November 29, 2024.
However, on December 20, 2024, the House initially passed the 2025 Appropriation Bill of N402.5 billion, which was later recalled and reduced to N384.3 billion today.
