The National Assembly recently passed the bill amidst controversy surrounding the Navy’s allocation for a presidential yacht and the N6 billion allotted for State House vehicles.

On Wednesday, the signing took place during a brief event in his office at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The occasion was witnessed by President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio; Speaker, House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas; Senate Leader, Sen Opeyemi Bamidele; Chairman Senate Committee on Finance, Sen Olamilekan Adeola; Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Abubakar Kabir Abubakar; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume; Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu and Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Services, Zachs Adedeji.

The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, had announced after the federal cabinet meeting that the supplementary budget would be used to finance urgent issues including N605 billion for national defense and security.

According to him, “This is to sustain the gains made in security and these are funds that are needed by the security agencies before the year runs out.”

Bagudu said the sum of N300bn was also provided to repair bridges including Eko and Third Mainland bridges as well as construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of many roads nationwide before the return of the rainy season.

He added that the sum of N200bn was provisioned for seed, agricultural input, supplies, agricultural implements and infrastructure in order to support expansion of production.

The minister said the sum of N210 billion was equally provided for the payment of six months’ provisional wage award as agreed during the negotiation with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC).

He recalled that the federal government agreed to pay N35,000 each to about 1.5 million employees of the federal government.

According to him, the payment would cover September, October, November and December 2023.

Bagudu said N400bn was also approved as cash transfer payments.

“You may recall that the federal government secured $800m loan from the World Bank to pay cash transfers of N25,000 to 15 million households. The $800 million is for two months, October and November. The President graciously approved that an additional month should be funded by the federal government and that is what this N100bn is for,” he added.

According to the minister, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has also been given N100 billion to fund essential and immediate capital expenditure projects that could improve the city’s infrastructure.

Bagudu said, N18 billion has been allocated in equal measure to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to facilitate the upcoming elections in the states of Imo, Kogi, and Bayelsa.

He said that N5.5 billion had been set aside to finance the takeover of the Student Loan Board and N8 billion to support the launch grants for new ministries.

The minister continued by saying that N200 billion had been allocated as capital augmentation to address urgent demands that the President had received from different parts the country.