The House of Representatives has passed the new 2020 reviewed budget with N4 billion allocation to the Resident Doctors Act to forestall a pending strike by the Resident Doctors.
The House passed a new budget of N10.805trillion, with a recurrent expenditure of N4.942trillion, debt servicing at N2.488trillion, statutory transfer of N422 billion and capital expenditure of N2.4trillion.
During the consideration of the report of the House Committee on Appropriation by the committee on Supply, the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila informed the House that during his meeting with Resident Doctors, the doctors revealed their plans to embark on a strike on Monday.
Mr. Gbajabiamila said he was not ready to support any budget without an allocation to the implementation of the 2017 Resident Doctors Act, noting that N4 billion was needed for the implementation of the act.
“Yesterday I met with the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors who will be going on strike on Monday. Their major issue is that the Resident Doctor Act passed in 2017 has not been implemented. We have not included them in the new budget.”
The Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, James Faleke advised that funds be taken from the service votes to implement the act.
Meanwhile, the House also approved the $5.5billion loan request by President Muhammadu Buhari for the implementation of the 2020 budget.
The approval followed the consideration of the report of the House committee on loan and debt management by the committee on supply.
Speaking on the report, the Chairman of the committee on Loan and Debt Management, Ahmed Safana noted that the loan request to be sourced from bilateral and multilateral organizations will not increase the country’s debt stock beyond the 25% threshold.
