Nigeria Lawmakers Reconvene Aug. 14 to Consider Election Budget

(Bloomberg) -- Nigerian lawmakers will return from their recess next week to consider spending proposals for general elections due to take place in February, House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun told reporters in the capital, Abuja.

President Muhammadu Buhari on July 17 sent a supplementary budget to lawmakers, asking them to reallocate 229 billion naira ($632 million), partly to help prepare for the vote in which he will seek re-election. While estimated cost of the general elections is 242 billion naira, Burari proposed lawmakers should approve allocating 164 billion naira to the electoral body immediately, and the remainder from the 2019 budget.

The lawmakers had adjourned for recess until Sept. 25.

Buhari’s supplementary budget came less than a month after he signed into law the 2018 budget of 9.1 trillion naira, which was 5.8 percent bigger than what he proposed in November.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: David Malingha Doya in Abuja at dmalingha@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rene Vollgraaff at rvollgraaff@bloomberg.net, David Malingha Doya

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