The Governor of Niger State, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, on Tuesday presented a budget estimate of over N98 billion to the state House of Assembly for the 2014 financial year.
Aliyu, while presenting the estimate, said the budget, which is termed ‘Budget of Sustainable Economic Growth’, is N8.8 billion above the amount spent in the 2013 financial year.
According to Governor Aliyu: “The state will spend N98,852,343,536.00 for both Capital and Recurrent expenditure in the 2014 fiscal year.
“Of the amount, N69,699,539,654.00 will be Statutory Allocation, while the Value Added Tax will fetch N9,220,585,968.00 and Internally Generated Revenue N6,315,890,060.00, Capital Receipts is put at N11,000,000,000.00 and income from the Sure-P fund put at N2,616,327,854.00.
“The total estimated recurrent expenditure for the year 2014 will gulp N47,290,280,591.00 which represents 47.84 per cent of the Budget.
“The recurrent expenditure comprises of Personnel cost N27,646,353,835.00; Overhead cost N12,048,690,920.00; Consolidated Revenue Charges N7,595,235,836.00.
“The Capital Expenditure will gulp N51,493,090,525.00 which is 52.16 per cent of the budget.
“The sectoral allocations include Economic sector N18,324,162,104.00; General Administration N15,707,001,667.00; Social sector N11,745,270,360.00; Science and Technology N442,500,000.00.”
The highlights of the 2014 budget will be focus on Agricultural transformation with N2,516,300,000.00 allocated to the sub-sector; the Education sub-sector has a proposed allocation of N5,142,768,221.00; Health has N3,343,834538.00.
In his address, the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Barrister Adamu Usman, said that the House will intensify its oversight functions to ensure the MDAs comply strictly with the provisions of the 2014 Budget.
Usman assured Aliyu that the House would study the provisions of the 2014 budget proposal meticulously in order to ensure its speedy passage.
He said: “The various House Committees will work doggedly to ensure that the screening is carried out in good time so that the Budget can be passed with minimum delay for its implementation to start from the very beginning of the year so as to enable the government execute its programmes and meet up with the yearnings and aspirations of the people of Niger State having in mind that 2014 is the only full year before May, 2015.”