Nasarawa state achives 51% of 2016 capital expenditure

The Nasarawa State Government says it spent N18.4 billion of the N36.3 billion budgeted for capital expenditure in 2016 fiscal year, this amounts to 51% of what was devoted to capital expenditure.

The Commissioner for Budget and Planning for the state,  Othman Ibrahim-Ahmed, disclosed this in Lafia on Wednesday while giving details of the 2017 appropriation bill recently presented to the state assembly for consideration and passage.

He said that out of the N80. 9 billion budget size for 2016, only N49.4 billion, representing 62. 3 per cent was realised as inflow from all revenue sources to the state as at October.

Othman said that N44.5 billion of the revenue was used for recurrent expenditure such as overhead cost, salaries and emoluments as well as pension and gratuity of retired civil servants.

According to him, the N18.4 billion, representing 50.6 per cent of the N36.3 billion appropriated for capital spending for the year went into infrastructure development.

They include construction of bridges, rural, urban and feeder roads, public building as well as health institutions and comprehensive hospitals.

Others include the completion of School of Nursing and Midwifery, upgrade of the general hospitals and the Lafia Township Stadium and the rehabilitation of the Nasarawa Water Supply Scheme.

On the 2017 appropriation bill christened “Budget of Reformation” currently before the assembly, Ibrahim-Ahmed said it would focus on completion of projects.

He said it would also be geared towards encouraging youths in agriculture as a way of empowerment, boosting production, developing value chain and strengthening commercial venture for stable economy.

The commissioner said from the N67.1 billion appropriated for the 2017 fiscal year, N37 billion, representing 55.2 per cent of the budget, was for recurrent expenditure while N30 billion, representing 44.7 per cent, was earmarked as capital expenditure.

He explained that the budget framework indicated a decrease of N13.9 billion against the 2016 budget of N80.9 billion in view of the current economic recession.

Ibrahim-Ahmed explained that the Ministry of Education got the highest sector allocation of N11.88 billion, while the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources got N174 million being the least