Gov. Lalong’s 2017 Budget Gives Priority To Works And Transport

Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, on Tuesday presented the Year 2017 Budget proposal of N132billion to the State House of Assembly, assuring that the budget would be judiciously implemented to continue the massive infrastructural renewal and the enhancement of Plateau State as one of the foremost destination for peace and tourism in Nigeria.

The Governor, who christened the 2017 budget as “A Budget Of Rescue And Confidence Building”, said it would focus on continues development of infrastructure, with the Ministry of Works and Transport gulping a whooping sum of N16billion.

In his words, “as a condition for Socio-Economic Development of the State and confidence building in governance and social services delivery, Government has already invested so much in this sub-section. Our attention will still be geared towards the completion of on-going road projects and the commencement of key once.

“To this end, the sum of Sixteen Billion four hundred and eight million Naira (N16,408,000,00.00), is provided for the provision of infrastructures within the rural and urban areas of the State”, he said.

Giving the key components of budget, Lalong said recurrent expenditure is estimated at N75,515billion, while N64,279billion would be dedicated to capital expenditure, representing 48.44 percent of total budget estimate.

He emphasized that road construction, rehabilitation and maintenance would be one of the key focuses of the budget, adding that efforts would be geared towards roads that will open up the hinterlands, improve connectivity in the State and reduce travel time.

However, the Governor said that the estimate for the 2017 budget is less than the approved budget for the 2016 fiscal year with the sum of N13,993billion.

According to him, the drop in the estimate is as a result of continuous fall in the revenue, accruing from the Federal Allocation arising from the fall in prize of oil, as well as the oil output due to crisis in the oil region. “This therefore means we need to make realistic projections to reflect the current economic realities”, he said.