Senate approves Buhari's request for transfer of funds

Lawmakers set to give President Buhari a soft landing

The Senate has approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s request for virement of funds in the 2016 budget.

According to The Punch the approval was given during plenary on Tuesday.

Senate President Bukola Saraki commended members of the Appropriations Committee led Senator Danjuma Goje for a job well done putting the request into proper shape.

He added that the approval will ensure capital project funding especially of local contractors and also allow for an efficient and appropriate implementation of the 2016 budget.

Recall that President Buhari had written the National Assembly on October 26, requesting virement of N180.8bn from the funds appropriated for Special Intervention (Capital and Recurrent) to enable the Federal Government fund critical recurrent and capital items in the budget.

However, the Senate jacked the virement up to N213bn, while the House of Representatives, which is concurrently working on the request, had raised it to N208bn.