As the National Assembly begins its review of the N49.7 trillion 2025 budget at the committee level on January 7, the Senate has announced it will suspend plenary for two weeks upon resumption on January 14. Additionally, Thursday of this week has been set aside for an open day focused on budget consideration, where stakeholders, including heads of ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs), will provide input.
Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (APC, Ogun West), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, made this announcement during a meeting with other Senate committee chairs. He mentioned that January 31, 2025, is the tentative date for presenting the reports on the 2025 Appropriation Bill in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
During the meeting, attended by key Senate officials including Deputy Leader Senator Lola Ashiru (APC, Kwara South) and Senate Whip Senator Tahir Monguno (APC, Borno North), it was acknowledged that the timeline for considering and passing the 2025 budget is tight, but the goal is to ensure thorough and effective handling of the process. Before the meeting with the committee chairs, the Appropriation Committee had spent several hours discussing the best approach to reviewing the budget, which was presented by President Bola Tinubu on December 18, 2024, and passed for second reading by both chambers of the National Assembly the following day.
To facilitate the review, hard copies of the budget proposals were distributed to committee chairs to serve as reference material during budget defense sessions with MDAs. The tentative schedule for the budget process at the committee level includes budget defense sessions starting on Tuesday, with reports from committees expected between January 15 and 18. Afterward, the Appropriation Committee will compile and finalize the reports, with the hope of presenting the final budget report to the Senate by January 31, though this date remains tentative.
Following this discussion, the committee entered a closed-door session with the Senate committee chairs.
