Jigawa’s targets sustainable economy with N137bn

The presentation of the fiscal proposal was the climax of the extensive deliberations with stakeholders in the state embarked upon by the state governor to generate inputs into the budget process.

The proposal was encapsulated as a budget conceived to create a self-sustaining local economy for the state, leveraging on the huge agricultural potential and other resources begging for development in the state.

In his address before laying the budget before the state legislators last Tuesday, Governor Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, said the data contained in the proposal was arrived at after extensive consultations with various stakeholders, and his personal engagements with various ministerial and sector heads to ensure that all priority areas were given the attention they deserve.

“The developmental goals of the state which include providing basic needs of security, education and health will only make sense if we strive to achieve self-sustenance, as recent events have shown a reliance on a mono revenue source that is susceptible to market volatility is a recipe for disaster.

“The rationale for our choice of agriculture as the main driver of our development strategy is based on a number of considerations: First, as we all know, Jigawa is an agrarian state with almost 90percent of its population subsisting on a system of farming characterised by high level of drudgery and low productivity.

“Virtually all the food and cash crops grown in the state have a yield that is below the global average and some farmers are presently getting less than 20percent of the potential yield of their chosen cultivars,” the governor said.

He noted that government’s operations during the Year 2015 were largely marred by a combination of fiscal uncertainties and monetary shortfalls, pointing out that the state, in addition to the dwindling revenue was also weighed down by huge contractual commitments and unpaid certified capital expenditure liabilities.

Giving an insight into the actual figures of this year`s proposal, Governor Badaru disclosed that the total size of the proposal is N137.23billion, and is 37 percent higher than what was expended by the state under the immediate past People Democratic Party led administration of former governor Sule Lamido, which the new regime took over from.

As a demonstration of the administration’s commitment to scale up infrastructural development across the state, he revealed that the sum of N71.31 billion of the total amount is for capital expenditure, while N62.92 billion is for re-current expenditure, and about N24.6 billion was to be set aside under a new window to be known as “Stabilisation and Contingency Funds”.

According to him, the budget is to be financed to the tune of over N14 billion to be generated from internal sources; N44.7 billion is to come from the Statutory Allocation, and Value Added Tax, in the same vein N18.6 billion is to come from Local Government Contribution for Primary Personal and Staff deployed to Gunduma Health System Board.

The governor further revealed that the Opening Balance for 2016 is about N15.8 billion, internal and external loan of the state was put N14 billion, while over N30 billion will be coming from other capital receipts, grants, and reimbursements from the Federal sources.

He explained: “As part of the efforts to grow the State’s Economy, we would also accord high priority to improvements in the Business Environment and Investment Climate in order to expand the role of private enterprises. This will involve progressive reduction in infrastructure deficit; business support development services particularly for our fledgling micro and small scale enterprises; proactive mobilization of private sector investments including foreign direct investment; and economic empowerment initiatives aimed at providing skilled manpower for the emerging enterprises in the State.

“We are closely working with our Development Partners to further develop and strengthen the State’s Investment Promotion outfit known as Invest Jigawa. The objective is to develop an appropriate institutional and regulatory framework for investment promotion.

“One major aspect of our policy priorities is human capital development. This entails effective delivery of key human development services to accompany new initiatives in the area of socioeconomic economic empowerment. The policy priorities identified as key to achieving our development objectives include: Sustained improvements in access to quality education; Access to affordable, effective and efficient healthcare services; Universal Access to Safe Drinking Water and sanitation; Pursuit of targeted youths and women empowerment and other poverty reduction programmes;

“In addition to the above, we intend to deepen reforms in several areas to ensure that our economic growth policies produce the desired impact. These include promotion of fiscal discipline and prudent financial management that ensure strategic prioritisation of public expenditure programmes and entrench efficient tax collection systems while broadening the state’s tax base.”

The governor explained that the budget was conceived in line with his administration’s development policy objective, which is geared toward creating a self-sustaining local economy, leveraging on the full gamut of the agriculture value chain.

Commenting on the proposal, some of the financial experts in the state, who spoke with BD SUNDAY, described the proposal as a balanced budget, but called on the governor to leverage on his private sector background to ensure that the fundamental objectives of the proposal are achieved.

They are of the view that the specific allocations to some of the critical sectors as reflected in the proposal are good development, capable of impacting positively on the socio-economic development of the citizens of the state.

Some of the specific allocations are: Water sector N8 billion, Agriculture N7.75 billion, Health N6 billion, Education N6.3billion, Housing N2.153billion, Urban and Regional Development N1.10 billion, Environmental Protection and Development N513 million, and Government Investments within the General Administration N3.495 billion, among others.