President Buhari to present the 2021 budget next week, says Ahmad Lawan

The Senate president, Ahmad Lawan, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari will present the 2021 budget to the National Assembly next week, according to a news report by Premium Times.

He said this in his welcome speech at the end of an executive session on Tuesday.

The lawmakers resumed from their annual recess on Tuesday and proceeded into a closed-door session which lasted for over 90 minutes.

Addressing his colleagues, Lawan commended the engagement of the Joint Committee on Finance and National Planning with the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning on the 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTF/FSP) during the Recess.

"The committee interacted with over 300 MDAs over the issues of revenue generation and remittances to the federal government," he said.

"The joint committee will present its report to the Senate today for consideration. This is a precursor to the presentation of the 2021 Budget Estimates by the Executive Arm of Government soon.

"I am aware that the Executive will be presenting the 2021 Budget Estimates by next week."

The Senate, he said, will provide a one-month window for budget defense by ministries, departments, and agencies.

"Like last year, the month of October 2020 will be dedicated to this exercise. Subsequent months of November and December will be dedicated to the internal processing of the Budget by NASS.

"The various MDAs are therefore advised to ensure that they avail themselves the opportunity of the Budget defense window to appear with all the relevant and necessary information to defend their Budget Estimates," he said.