Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed on Thursday presented a budget estimate of N181, 886, 056, 555.00 for the year 2018.
The governor while presenting the budget before the lawmakers at the Kwara State House of Assembly said the proposed budget reflected an increase of N15,781,009,150 or 9.5 per cent compared with the 2017 Revised Appropriation.
Christened, “Budget of Sustained Growth and Prosperity,” the sum of N75, 204, 257,902, representing 41.3 per cent is for recurrent expenditure, while the total sum of N106,681,798,630, which represents 58.7 per cent is earmarked for capital expenditure.
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Under the recurrent expenditure, N46,567,379,761, representing 62 per cent is allocated as an overhead cost which includes subventions to parastatals, support grants and contributions including the overhead cost of tertiary institutions in the state. Personnel cost is expected to gulp N13,918,001,894 or 18.5 per cent of the total recurrent expenditure.
Governor Ahmed explained that the 2018 budget proposal was formulated using the zero-based budgeting approach and its projections were based on the Federal Government adopted assumptions of oil price benchmark of $45 per barrel and oil production estimate of two point three million barrels per day.
The economic affairs sector has the highest allocation of N53,744,166,521.00 which represents 54.4% of the total capital expenditure, while the health sector is allocated N23,918,380,992.00 representing 22.4%.
The Education Sector has an allocation of N12,628,47,156 which represents 11.8%, while general public services has N7,550,770,62.00 representing 7.1% of the total expenditure.
According to Ahmed, the government recorded 71% implementation of the 2017 budget with modest achievements in key sectors despite the economic challenges.
“The 2018 Budget is developed in line with the improvement in the country’s economy, arising from the positive economic indices recorded during the outgoing year.
“Given this development, particular attention will be paid to the implementation of policies and programmes that will ensure prosperity for the people of Kwara State by enhancing infrastructure, stimulating the socio-economic environment, boosting the informal sector and expanding job creation.
“The Main Policy Thrust of 2018 Budget will therefore be to strengthen our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) mechanism for increased revenue collection. Our focus on revenue collection is premised on the need to ensure the completion of all on-going infrastructure development projects and the funding of new ones.
“It is important to state that our focus on increasing and strengthening IGR is not to impose new taxes or levies, but rather to widen the tax net and plug loopholes,” Ahmed said.
Ali Ahmad, the speaker of the State House of Assembly in his remarks, said that meeting expectations of people have made a budget to be a serious matter, assuring that, legislators will not relent in efforts as they are going to work hard to ensure proper implementation.
“People now know that budget is the law. We are focusing on issues, on how the budget will be implemented and as well attain January to December budget circle. We will work hard and interact with relevant agencies as we are going to ensure that the budget is given a thorough assessment within a short time. We are resolute to pass the budget by December 31,” said the speaker.
