President Muhammadu Buhari has assented to the Federal Capital Territory Appropriation Act 2016 passed by the National Assembly.

This was made known by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang, on Wednesday in Abuja.

“The legal implantation of the budget therefore comes into effect, which will result in employment in the formal sectors and informal sectors through projects implementation and employment therefrom arising,” Enang said.

The Senate had passed the N241.5bn budget in July.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on FCT, Dino Melaye, while presenting the report of his committee on the floor of the chamber, had clarified that the sum of N52.9bn was for personnel cost, N34.4bn for overhead, while N154.1bn was for capital expenditure.

He explained that 80 per cent of the amount for capital expenditure was for the completion of abandoned projects.

Melaye pointed out that FCT’s 2015 budget recorded 61 per cent budgetary performance, but the committee had projected a minimum of 85 per cent to 90 per cent budgetary performance in 2016.

While explaining the rationale behind the laying of the budgets of statutory corporations before the National Assembly for consideration and passage, Enang said that the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 states that “the budget of the underlisted agencies, among others, be laid before the Assemblies by Mr. President, in addition to, and independent of, the annual Appropriation Act.”

The departments, corporations and agencies include the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation; the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation; the Bureau of Public Enterprises; the Nigerian Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure; and the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund.