Governor of Kwara state, Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara has presented a budget of N116,164, 643,775 for the 2016 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly.
Tagged: “Budget of Sustained Expansion,” Ahmed said that the budget has a decrease of N1.5 billion, representing 1.3 per cent against the 2015 budget.
According to him, the 2016 budget is made up of Recurrent Expenditure of N48.4 billion, representing 42 per cent of the total budget, while capital expenditure stands at N57.7 billion, representing 49 per cent of the budget.
Ahmed, however, said that N10 billion or nine per cent of the budget was set aside to service public debt in 2016.
The governor said that one of the objectives of the proposal was to boost socio-economic activities by completing ongoing projects in health, roads, energy, education, water and justice sectors.
He assured the people that the budget would ensure efficient expenditure that will result in significant savings and provide the fiscal space required for growth and stability of the state’s economy.
Ahmed told the House that the 2016 budget would increase revenue and block leakages to ensure additional revenue required for the implementation of government programmes and projects.
The governor said N25.3 billion of the budget is expected to be sourced from the statutory Federal Allocation, amounting to 21.8 per cent of the budget, while N7.3 billion would come from Value Added Tax.
Non-oil revenue, Ahmed said, would account for N4.2 billion. representing 3.7 per cent of the budget, while Internally Generated Revenue is expected to fetch N29.7 billion, representing 25 per cent of the budget.
He said N25.8 billion or 22.2 per cent of the budget would come from Capital Development Fund Receipt/Aid and Grants, while N20 billion would come from the bond to be taken from Capital Market.
Ahmed added that “term loan facility from financial institutions is expected to contribute N4.2 billion, representing 3.6 per cent of the total revenue.
Meanwhile, economic affairs, comprising agriculture, energy, works and transport, information and communication, had the lion share of N37.7billion, representing 32.5 per cent of the budget.
Education came next with N30.4 billion or 26.2 per cent of the budget, followed by General Public Services, gulping N27 billion, representing 23.3 per cent.
The governor said the budget would capture construction of new state roads to link up with farm settlements, communities, educational institutions, health centres, industries and tourism sites, which will cost N8.8 billion.
The roads are Kaiama-Kishi (62.85km), Patigi-Rogun Kpada (43.5km) and Ilesha-Baruba-Gwanara (32.80km).
Others are Geri-Alimi Fly-over Bridge, expansion of Kwara Polytechnic Road-Oyun Bridge-Oke-Ose Teaching Hospital (7km) and dualization of Michael Imoudu-Ganmo/Afon junction road (1.9km).
“To improve the quality of education at all levels, government will focus attention on infrastructure development of our educational institutions to provide environment conducive for teaching and learning,” he said.
According to Ahmed, 30 secondary schools across the three senatorial districts of the state would be renovated.
The governor said the 2016 budget would boost rice and fish production, improve water and energy supply and develop grazing reserve to prevent clashes between cattle grazers and crop farmers. [myad]
