Senate clears Finance Minister of complicity in budget padding

Nigeria’s upper legislative assembly on Monday gave the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, the clean bill on alleged series of paddings in the proposed N20.51trillion 2023 budget from the Senate Committee on Appropriation when she made clarifications before the committee.

Briefing Senate Correspondents after the Minister appeared before the committee which was quickly carried out due to a power outage at the National Assembly, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Jibrin Barau, commended her for ensuring transparency with capturing of such loans or grants in the budget.

The Minister explained to the committee that the various sums some heads of agencies feigned ignorance of during their interface with relevant committees for budget defence , were approved by the Federal Executive Council ( FEC), before the budget presentation itself by President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, October 7, 2022.