Federal Government’s statutory allocations to the National Assembly and the National Judicial Council reached a combined total of N564 billion by October, 2024, according to The PUNCH findings.
Earlier in February, the House of Representatives proposed allocating five per cent of the country’s annual budget to the federal legislature and judiciary.
This proposal involved amending Nigeria’s Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007 by adding Section 54(a), which would ensure a fixed five per cent allocation to the National Assembly and the Federal Judiciary in the yearly Appropriation Act.
Prior to this, the National Assembly increased its budget for 2024 from N197.93 billion to N344.85 billion, the highest allocation in its history.
Similarly, federal lawmakers also raised the NJC’s statutory transfers from N165 billion to N341.63 billion. These changes were highlighted in a document titled House of Representatives Federal Republic of Nigeria Order Paper, dated December 30, 2023.
Data from GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks Federal Government expenditure, shows that between January and October 2024, the National Assembly management and NJC collectively received N564,432,524,592 in statutory allocations.
Statutory transfers, mandated by law and protected by the constitution, grant these institutions autonomy over their budgets.
For the National Assembly, records indicate it received N172 billion in statutory allocations between January and June, with payments made on February 6, February 29, March 28, May 3, May 28, and June 25.
Additionally, the legislature received N28.7 billion as statutory transfers across July, August, and October, bringing the total to N86 billion during this period. It also secured N50 billion in two tranches on July 2 and July 22 for capital expenditures, bringing its total allocations to N308 billion by October.
Similarly, the NJC received N170.8 billion in allocations between January and June. In the subsequent months of July, August, and October, the judiciary received three installments of N28,464,811,603 each, bringing its total allocation over ten months to N256 billion.
The combined allocations of N308 billion for the National Assembly and N256 billion for the NJC match the N564 billion disbursed by the Federal Government to the two bodies over the review period.
