FREEPRESS – Osun (N173.8b), Borno (N170.3b), Bauchi (N167.9b), Enugu (N98b)
Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima has presented a budget of N170.3 billion to the State House of Assembly for 2018 fiscal year.
The appropriation bill, tagged ‘Budget of Resettlement and Empowerment’, however, dropped by 7.3 per cent or N13 billion compared to last year’s N183.84 billion.
Shettima, while presenting the budget yesterday, said the “massive reconstruction of institutional structures” destroyed by Boko Haram insurgents are to be accorded topmost priority for displaced persons to return to their communities.
Also, Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar of Bauchi State has presented a budget of N167.9 billion to state House of Assembly.
The governor, while presenting the budget tagged ‘Budget of Consideration’ yesterday, said the budget consists of recurrent expenditure of N68.77 billion, while capital project amounted to N99.87 billion.
The revenue expenditure of the budget, according to him, is N114,600,617,381 while the state government projects an internal revenue of N13.11 million with statutorily allocation of N101,474,233,151.
Abubakar, who stated that his administration recorded some achievements in the outgoing year, said that health and education sectors are given the lion’s share of 15 per cent and 14 per cent respectively of the budget.
In a related vein, Enugu State Governor, Mr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, yesterday presented a budget of N98,563,500,000 to the state House of Assembly for 2018 fiscal year.
The Appropriation Bill, tagged “Budget of Sustainable Economic Growth”, which is 6.7 per cent less than 2017 estimate of N105,19,471,000, shows that the capital expenditure is N37.84 billion while N60,776 billion is for recurrent expenditure.
Ministry of Works, according to him, tops sectoral allocations with N10.4 billion, followed by education with N6.238 billion.
Others are health, N3.7 billion; rural development N2 billion; housing, N1.18 billion; water resources, N782 million; agriculture, N707 million and commerce and industry, N250 million.
Ugwuanyi, who stated that the state government would get N43 billion from statutory allocation and N2.5 billion from internally-generated revenue, said the budget estimate is based on medium-term expenditure frame-work of the Federal Government.
Also, Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State has presented the 2018 budget of N173,980,83,700 to the state House of Assembly for consideration.
The fiscal estimate, tagged ‘Budget of Enduring Legacy,’ has N85 billion recurrent expenditure while capital expenditure stood at N88 billion.
Aregbesola, who stated that 2018 would be a year of consolidation and complementation of his administration’s achievements in the last seven years, said the budget was designed to consolidate on his achievements and leave an enduring legacy, adding that the budget was also to finally fulfill the six-point integral action plan.
The governor said the budget is N27,347,336,027 higher than that of 2017, stating that the appropriation bill would be financed with the share of the state Federal Allocation, Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR) and other sources of income.
In the budget, Education got 14.87 per cent while health sector was allocated N2.5 per cent.
Shettima said: “This budget is going to be financed from Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR) of N16.65 billion, Federation Account Allocations (FAA) of N115.73 billion and capital receipts of N38 billion. The IGR has also been reviewed upwards to reflect the current economic situation in the state.”
In the sectorial budget breakdown, he said Education and Works and Transport sectors took the lion’s shares of N26.82 billion and N22.66 billion respectively.
The governor, who stated that Education, Higher Education and the State Universal Basic Commission (SUBEC) had been earmarked N26.82 billion, said the accord of topmost priority to Works and Transport, and the Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RRR) sectors, was to expedite the completion of Boko Haram-destroyed public structures and houses in the nine-year insurgency.
He said: “The reconstruction and rehabilitation of these public structures and houses, next year, are to create an enabling environment to return over 2.8 million displaced persons to their liberated communities on or before May 29, 2018.”
Aregbesola, who noted that education is important and essential to his administration, hence his determination to reconstruct and rebuild the education sector, promote functional education at all levels in the state, said: “Our ultimate goal for the 2018 budget is to ensure a continuous improvement in the welfare and standard of living of our people.
“This will be achieved by consolidating the previous achievements of this administration and do everything possible to recover the lost glory of the state.
The Bauchi Assembly Speaker, Kawuwa Shehu Damina and his Enugu counterpart, Edward Ubosi, assured the governors that the 2018 appropriation bill would be given expeditious passage by members and also their readiness to support the state governments at all times.
Damina urged all the state’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to give maximum co-operation to the Assembly’s various standing committees during the budget defence and oversight functions.
He added that the committees would continue to embark on quarterly monitoring of the budget performance to ensure effective implementation.
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