Agric, health get lion share of Bauchi’s 2018 budget

Governor, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar of Bauchi State on Thursday, presented a budget of N167.9 billion for the 2018 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly for consideration.

The governor, while presenting the budget on the floor of the Bauchi State House of Assembly, disclosed that agriculture, health, education, water supply, roads, women and youth empowerment will be given top priorities in the budget.

According to him, the budget, tagged: “Budget of Consideration,” consists of recurrent expenditure of N68,77,930,725 bn, while capital project stood at N99,879,490,075bn.

The revenue expenditure of the 2018 budget is N114,600,617,381bn, while the state government projected an internal revenue of N13,11m with statutorily allocation of N101,474,233,151bn.

It also contains overhead of N26,779,394,308bn, pension and gratuity, N7,500m, dept over N4bn, while the public carried N918,440,202m, and capital credit of N53,356,803,419m.

The governor, while reviewing the performance of the 2017 budget, stated that his administration recorded significant achievements in the outgoing year, adding that over 800 different projects were executed and completed in the 20 local government areas of the state.

Abubakar, who said that health and education were given the Lion’s share of the 2017 budget, added that in the 2018 budget health is given 15 per cent, while education is given 14 per cent.

The governor, while stating that his administration has constructed 19 primary health care centres across the state in the outgoing year, roads currently under construction have reached 58 percent completion, further said that payment of pension and gratuity will soon commence with the sum of N2 billion set aside for the purpose, saying that he inherited N14bn debt from the last administration.

He called on all the people of the state, including traditional rulers, to support him with prayers so that Bauchi State will move forward.

In his speech the Speaker, Bauchi State House of Assembly, Right Hon. Kawuwa Shehu Damina, assured the governor that the 2018 budget presented to the Assembly will be given expeditious passage by members.

According to him, in doing this, however, the Assembly will diligently scrutinized the bill, noting that since budget was being presented to the Assembly, members have never at any time deviated from their assigned responsibilities.

The Speaker, who called on all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in the state to give maximum cooperation to the various standing committees of the state assembly during the budget defence and oversight functions, added that the committees will continue to embark on quarterly monitoring of the budget’s performance to ensure effective implementation.