Kaduna commences MTEF preparations for 2021- 2023 budget

The Kaduna State Government has commenced preparations of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) that will inform the state’s multi-year budget, 2021 to 2023.

Mr Idris Suleiman, Director Budget in the state Planning and Budget Commission, made this known at the opening of a meeting with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Kaduna on Tuesday.

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Suleiman said that the meeting was part of citizens’ engagement in the budget process, adding that the MTEF was in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Law.

He explained that the law provides for prudent public expenditure, fiscal management, and discipline with a view to ensuring long term macro-economic stability in the state.

He explained that the MTEF provides a tool for multi-year fiscal planning and budget formulation aimed at setting realistic fiscal targets and allocation of resources to strategic priorities.

According to him, this will ensure the attainment of budget credibility for the 2021 to 2023 fiscal years.

Also, the Deputy Director Budget, Linda Yakubu, explained that the essence of the meeting was to give room for CSOs to make quality inputs to the budget process.

“We want to ensure that citizens are carried along in the budget process so they could own it and support the government to successfully implement it,” she said.

Similarly. Mr Badamasi Musa, a Deputy Director with the commission, said engaging citizens at the planning stage would ensure a more realistic budget.

“This is very critical for us in Kaduna state, following the current global economic crisis occasioned by the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

“I, therefore, call on the CSOs to add value to the process by looking at the macroeconomic projections and advise accordingly,” Musa said.

Mr Emmanuel Bonet, Executive Director, Aid Foundation, commended the state government for engaging CSOs from the budget’s preparatory stage.

Bonet said: “This is the first-time civil society organisations are engaged in the preparation of the MTEF from the planning stage to make inputs. This is quite commendable.”

Similarly, Mr Yusuf Goje of the Coalition of Associations for Leadership, Peace, Empowerment, and Development, also said that engaging citizens at the planning process was apt and a demonstration of the government willingness to carry citizens along.