President Muhammadu Buhari has renewed the determination of his administration to uplift the quality of life of Nigerians through aggressive implementation of humane and gender-responsive budgets as well as security measures to check criminal activities in the country.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the president presented the 2022 Appropriation Bill for an aggregate expenditure of N16.39 trillion to the joint session of the National Assembly (NASS) on Thursday.
The president described the 2022 Appropriation which was earlier approved for presentation to NASS by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Oct. 6, as Budget of Economic Growth and Sustainability.
According to him, the 2022 budget is also the first in the nation’s history, where Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) were clearly advised on gender-responsive budgeting.
The president seized the opportunity of the budget presentation to provide an overview of global and domestic developments in the country.
While observing the COVID-19 protocol during his presentation, the president also gave a summary of his administration’s achievements and its plans for the next fiscal year.
Mr Buhari stressed that these were exceptional times for Nigeria.
He said: “The grim realities of COVID-19 and its lethal variants are still upon us. From president to pauper, the virus does not discriminate. “This is why our country still maintains its COVID-19 guidelines and protocols in place to protect citizens and stop the spread of this disease.’’