The Senate has received the letter from Acting President Yemi Osinbajo requesting approval for a virement of N135.6 billion to fund some critical priority projects in the 2017 budget.

‎The letter was read on the floor of the Senate by the Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over Tuesday’s plenary.‎

The Acting President in the letter drew the attention of the National Assembly to discussions and agreements between the two arms before the 2017 Appropriation Bill was signed into law on June 12.

According to the letter, part of the agreement was that the executive should submit a virement proposal to move some funds from within the budget to other critical items in the budget.

Details of the document showed that the sum of N46bn is to be vired within projects of Ministry of Power, Works and Housing while N66bn is to be vired within projects of Ministry of Transportation.

The sum of N1bn is to be vired within projects of Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Other requests include N7.70bn from Federal Ministry of Interior and N80.50 million from the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment.

Osinbajo urged the National Assembly to urgently consider the virement proposal in order to support the collective efforts to improve the well-being of Nigerians.

Ekweremadu subsequently referred the virement to the Committee on Appropriation.

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