Story from Ahmad Saka, Bauchi
The Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir has presented the sum of N213, 914, 559,427 proposed budget for the 2021 fiscal year.
Presenting the proposed budget at the floor of the State House of Assembly on Tuesday, Governor Bala said N93, 197, 307 or 44 per cent of the budget will be set aside for recurrent expenditure.
He said the sum of N31.7 billion is earmarked for personnel cost while N31.5 billion as overhead cost respectively.
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Bala said the 2021 proposed budget will earmark the sum of N120, 717,252,458 or 56 per cent on capital expenditure, with the economic sector taking the lion share of N64 billion and closely followed by the social sector which will gulp the sum of N34 billion.
He said the sum of N180 billion is estimated recurrent revenue, with N68. 3 billion expected as Statutory Allocation, N24 billion will be realised from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) while N16 billion will be made from Value Added Tax (VAT).
The Governor explained that the proposed 2021 budget was higher than that of last year, which was N167, 215,807, 500 to capture programmes and projects that are strategic to the development of the state are implemented.
He said to make the 2021 budget participatory, inclusive and grassroots orientated, public hearings were conducted in the three senatorial districts where input from stakeholders was taken and included in the budget.
The Governor solicited for the cooperation of the members of the legislature to ensure that the 2021 budget succeeds owing to the challenges in the economy which put the country in recession combined with serious security issues.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated and stagnated the world economy in all ramifications, creating massive unemployment, revenue loss as well as total closure of the productive sector of the economic,” he observed.
“Despite the negative impact of the virus, the global economic growth is except to rise from 2.9 per cent in 2019 to 3.3 per cent in 2020 and 3.4 in 2021,” forecasting that Nigeria is likely to benefit as oil production will rise due to continued stability in the Niger-Delta region.
Governor Bala praised the cordial relationship between his administration and the legislature in the state urged members to expedite action towards passing the 2021 proposed budget into law to enable the government implemented the proposed budgeted programmes and projects.
He believes that for Nigeria to benefit maximally from the global trends, the country must diversify its economy and liberalised trade, saying that the declaration by President Muhammadu Buhari to open borders of the country was a welcome development.
The Speaker of the House, Suleiman Abubakar thanked the Governor for his proactive programmes and policies since assumption of office and promised to ensure that the state lawmakers intensify efforts for a speedy passage of the 2021 proposed budget into law.
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