9th November, 2022
By Abdullahi Mohammed
Governor Muhammad Badaru of Jigawa on Wednesday presented N178.5 billion budget proposal for 2023 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly.
The budget tagged: “Budget of Consolidation for Sustainable Socioeconomic Development – II.”
According to Badaru, the budget policy thrust is aim at consolidating his administration commitment on sustained progress and development.
The governor said the recurrent to capital expenditure ratio of the budget was put at 50:50 per cent, which reflected adherence to the administration’s fiscal objectives of trying to strike a balance between consumption and investment.
He said, “while not compromising the imperatives for funding routine expenditure for sustained service delivery, we still need to continue to invest as much as possible to achieve our objectives of sustained and inclusive economic growth and development.
“This much is also clearly reflected in structure of the proposed capital expenditure whereby about 90 per cent of the capital budget proposed to be expended in the economic and social services sectors.”
He said the appropriation for education and health sectors stood at N61.2 billion and N28.9 billion, representing 34.3 and 16.2 per cent of the total proposed estimate, respectively.
The governor said N89.4 billion has been earmarked for capital investments which was about half of the total budget size.
According to him, a similar proportionate value of the total capital investments will be spent towards the sustenance and completion of ongoing programmes and projects.
A total of N19.65 billion has been earmarked for road infrastructure to facilitate completion of ongoing road construction and rehabilitation works of roads and bridges damaged to flooding.
And N6.5 billion has been allocated for agriculture to accelerate all-year-round crop production, mechanisation and supply of inputs, while N4.95 billion has been provided for water supply and sanitation.
Badaru said the N14.42 billion allocation to the health sector representing over 16 per cent of the total capital investment would fast track completion and commissioning of major ongoing projects in the sector.
He listed the projects to include two Specialist Hospitals in Hadejia and Kazaure, three General Hospitals at Gagarawa, Gwiwa and Kirikasamma, and 11 upgraded Primary Healthcare Clinics.
Others included the sustain implementation of Free Maternal and Child Healthcare Programme; Primary Health Care Programme, Supplementary Immunisation Activities, and Nutrition Interventions.
Adequate fund, he said, has been set aside to provide additional facilities at Hadejia and Babura Schools of Nurses for enabling teaching and learning environment, as well as allow for further expansion of women, Social Welfare and Social Protection Programmes.
“The sum of N3.04 billion is being earmarked for this component of Social Development.
“Based on the Consolidated Revenue and Expenditure position of all the 27 local government councils, it is proposed that the sum of about N82.28 billion would be generated from various sources to be expended on financing of the various expenditure components of the Local Government Budgets.”
He, however, thanked members of the assembly for given two of his bills expedited hearing to allow for timely passage of the Appropriation Bills.
The governor also applauded the existing congenial harmony between the executive and legislature, adding that the feat allowed them to effectively work together in meeting the yearnings and aspirations of the people of the state.
“Your contributions to our success stories are very much well known. I believe we were able to surpass our target of at least one-village-one-project initiative during the first four years of our administration through the contributions of the various constituency projects incorporated into the annual budgets as facilitated by the Honourable Members,” Badaru said.
The Speaker, Alhaji Garba Jahun lauded the governor for facilitating unprecedented achievements across the sectors, especially in agriculture and business sectors as never witnessed in the history of the state.
Jahun further hailed Baduru for his commitment towards the transformation of Infrastructure, security, health and education sectors of the state.