President Muhammadu Buhari has assented to the N983 billion 2021 supplementary budget recently passed by the National Assembly.

Mr Umar El-Yakub, Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly matters, disclosed this when he briefed State House Correspondents on Monday in Abuja.

El-Yakub said that the core target of the supplementary budget was the security and health sectors.

“The president has asserted the Supplementary Appropriation Bill which is now an Act.

“The bill was submitted to the National Assembly and it made an expeditious consideration of the bill, which was passed and transmitted in record time and the president has today assented to that bill and of course it will come into force form today.

“As you are all aware, the bill is targeted at infrastructure in terms of security.

“It targeted the provision of infrastructure to all the military formations– defence, army, police, civil defence, DSS–all the security outfits in this country will benefit from the bill because of the president’s commitment to combating crimes and indeed insurgency and other security challenges facing the country; so this bill is very important and it has been assented to.

“Another critical area of concern is that of the health sector;  which we know with the pandemic there is need to invest in that sector as well and the president, having assented to the bill, you find that about ten molecular laboratories will be established nationwide,” he said.

According to him, oxygen plants are going to be established nationwide and some rehabilitated especially the ones in Abuja the nation’s capital.

He said there would also be the procurement of vaccines, including the J & J vaccine which was a one-shot vaccine that had been approved by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

“The total amount in the appropriation bill assented to by the president is N983 billion,” he said.

The senior special assistant said that the president also used the occasion to appreciate the National Assembly for maintaining a harmonious relationship with the executive arm of government, for the benefit of all Nigerians.

He added the president had earlier in the month assented to the Orthopedic Hospitals Management Amendment Bill which gave approval for the establishment of an orthopedic hospital in Jos, Plateau.