Gov. Ahmed presents 2016 Appropriation Bill to Kwara Assembly

The Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, on Tuesday in Ilorin presented a budget of N116, 164, 643, 775 for 2016 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly for consideration.
Tagged “Budget of Sustained Expansion”, Ahmed said the budget has a decrease of N1. 5billion; representing 1.3% decrease over that of 2015.
According to him, the 2016 budget is made up of Recurrent Expenditure of N48.4b, representing 42% of the total budget, while capital expenditure stands at N57.7billion, representing 49% of the budget.
He, however, said N10 billion or 9% of the budget was set aside to service public debt in 2016.
Ahmed stated 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 N25.3billion of the budget is expected to be sourced from the statutory federal allocation amounting to 21.8% of the budget, while N7.3billion would come from Value Added Tax.
Non-oil revenue, Ahmed said, would account for N4.2billion representing 3.7% of the budget while Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), is expected to fetch N29.7billion, representing 25% of the budget.
He said N25.8billion or 22.2% of the budget would come from Capital Development Fund Receipt/Aid & Grants while N20billion would come from the bond to be taken from capital market.
Ahmed added that “term loan facility from financial institutions is expected to contribute N4.2billion, representing 3.6% 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% of the budget.
Education came next with N30.4billion or 26.2% of the budget, followed by General Public Services gulping N27billion, representing 23.3%.
The governor said the budget would capture construction of new state roads to link up with farm settlements, communities, educational institutions, health centers, industries and tourism sites which will cost N8.8billion.
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. (NAN)