The Bauchi state governor, Bala Mohammed, Thursday, presented a budget proposal of over N300 billion for the 2024 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly for consideration and subsequent passage.
Addressing members of the assembly at their complex, the Governor explained that the budget which was “tagged BUDGET OF CONSOLIDATION & RENEWED FOCUS” is made up of 58.8 per cent for capital expenditure while 41.2 pe rcent is for recurrent expenditure.
Governor Bala said the proposed budget was prepared on the assumption of the increase in oil production capacity which means that revenue accruing from the sale of oil will increase and also an increase in Value Added Tax.
He said the 2024 budget which is in compliance with international best practices on budget guidelines is prepared based on the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) in compliance Bauchi State Fiscal Responsibility Law (2009) and will ensure completion of ongoing projects, initiating of new ones based on needs and other critical sectors of economy.
He said it also complies with the National Format and Chart of Accounts, aimed at improving the quality of financial reporting in line with the International Public-Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) and it wwa been predicated on the assumptions of an oil production projection of 1.78 million barrels per day; a bench mark oil price of 73.96 US dollars per barrel; an exchange rate of N700 to the US dollar; an improved level of revenue accruals into the Federation Account arising from oil subsidy removal; and an improved and efficient system of internally generated revenue collection.
According to him, the state government has in the course of the preparation of the Budget taken some measures which included ensuring the completion of on-going projects, proposing new projects on the basis of critical need and the immediate impact they would make, ensure reduction in non-essential overheads and ensure compliance with Budget guidelines issued by the Nigerian Governors Forum to ensure peer review and comparability among others.
“The sum of N300,219,705,820.60 has been Budgeted for Capital and Recurrent services during the 2024 fiscal year. This comprises of Recurrent Expenditure of N121,341,193,343.11 or 40.4% while Capital Expenditure receives the sum of N178,878,512,477.49
or 59.6%.
“The 2024 proposed Budget is 48.2% higher than the budget I presented at this House for 2023. The increase is attributable to the increased revenue arising from the subsidy removal and the upward inflationary trends associated with the depreciating state of the local currency. This implies an increase in prices upon which our projects and programmes will be implemented. The adoption of this conservative approach is to ensure that projects and programmes captured are appropriately costed.”
On the implementation of the 2023 budget, the governor regretted that rising inflationary conditions and failure in meeting projected capital receipts from development partners had affected the overall performance with achieving only about 51.6% in the implementation of the budget as at 30th September 2023.
He however said that his administration remained optimistic of achieving a considerable degree of performance in the Budget implementation at the end of the fiscal year most especially with concrete measures put in place to improve on internal revenue generation in addition to building in relationships with development partners aimed at accessing funding from the bilateral and multilateral arrangements put in place.
“I want to solicit the continuous support and cooperation of this Honourable House in our efforts towards the development of our dear State and in improving the lives of its citizens. We have no doubt made significant progress in that respect. As we get to settle into our responsibility of governance coming into the second term, I want to use this opportunity to urge our citizens to embrace our development objectives of making our State a better place for all of us. We will continue to work to ensure that the prevailing peace, security and protection of lives and properties of citizens is guaranteed.”
Responding, the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Babayo Akuyam assured the governor and the people of the state that the House would expedite action towards passing the Budget into law to enable Government implement the programmes and projects that will have significant impact on the lives of the people.
