El-Rufai Presents Budget To Stakeholders, Public For Discussion

El-Rufai Presents Budget To Stakeholders, Public For Discussion

Saturday, November 28, 2015 10:05 pm


Governor Nasir El-Rufai

Governor Nasir El-Rufai

Femi Adi/ Kaduna.

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, on Saturday, presented the draft of N166 billion proposed budget to stakeholders, residents and other members of the public in the state.

The budget comprising N104 billion capital and N62 billion recurrent components, according to El-Rufai, would be presented formally to the State House of Assembly in December.

Addressing the stakeholders at General Hassan Katsina State House, Kaduna during an emergency budget Town Hall meeting, El-Rufai revealed that reasons past governments left behind legacies of abandoned projects was that, huge annual budgets were approved without being implemented.

He also disclosed that previous administrations in the state had reduced budgeting into a “fictographic” art without considerations or any relationship with reality.

According to the governor who said he would always put the people first in all his actions , the present administration is determined to make the state great again by reversing the neglect that the public interest has suffered and restore hope.

He said in the proposed 2016 budget, the pro-poor programmes comprise interventions in school feeding, planting of economic trees, and waste collection which are expected to create 200,000 jobs.

Explaining the motive behind presenting the budget proposal to stakeholders before the House of Assembly today, El-Rufai said, “We have called this meeting today to present to you the broad principles informing the policy choices that are reflected in the draft 2016 budget. The budget is anchored on the commitments outlined in the Restoration Programme, the manifesto platform on which the Kaduna State APC campaigned”

He further explained that APC believes in the capacity of the people to make the best choices for themselves, if they are properly educated, given decent healthcare, and jobs in a secure environment.

While pointing out that the major Highlights of the 2016 Budget Proposals moves away from funding government to providing infrastructure and services to citizens, he noted that it restores the 60:40 ratio in favour of capital expenditure. “This is in keeping with our agenda to expand access to education, healthcare, jobs and security,” he stressed.

He equally informed that capital investments captured in the draft budget include: Kaduna Ring Road; Comprehensive Security Interventions in partnership with neighbouring states; Textile Revival; Youth Entrepreneurship programmes; lighting up Kaduna with streetlights, the state wide Tree Planting programme

Meanwhile, he lamented that year after year, only the recurrent part of the budget attained perfect performance. Capital investments repeatedly suffered, sometimes reaching only 1% in some sectors or 17% performance overall.

However, El-Rufai said his government has set out programme to be strict about public expenditure and be clearer about priorities.

He recalled that in 2014, the Ministry of Health got only N300 million, but in 2016, the Health sector will get more than N3b. Also he noted that in 2014, the Government House spent N2.1 billion but it is spending only N563m in 2016.

In the spirit of cutting cost, he also said political appointees will take pay cuts as sacrifice for change. He added that there will be no automatic annual salary increments in 2016. Duty Tour Allowances and Estacode rates are to be reduced as well.


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