TheCable

The national assembly Nigerian aims to pass the 2017 budget by the end of March, Senate President Bukola Saraki said on Tuesday.

“This month is our deadline to finish work on the budget and return it to the executive,” Saraki said after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari and Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the house of representatives.

Buhari presented his record 7.298 trillion naira ($23.21 billion) budget to lawmakers in December.

The budget must be agreed by lawmakers before being passed back to the president and passed into law.

Heads of ministries and agencies of government have already appeared at the national assembly to defend their budget.