Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna state on Wednesday signed the state’s N278.58 billion budget for 2022 into law, while assuring residents of the state that the budget will be faithfully implemented to improve public welfare and develop human capital and infrastructure.
The signed budget tagged ‘Budget of Sustainable Growth’ is made up of N184.53 billion capital expenditure and N94.05 billion recurrent expenditure, a ratio of 66:37.
The social subsector with N89.67 billion (49% of the capital budget) has the largest sectoral allocation. Capital allocations in the social subsector are education (N41.66bn), health (N28.63bn) and social development (N19.37bn). Capital budget allocation for public works and infrastructure is N28.94bn, as N8.79bn is for housing and urban development. The signing ceremony, held at the Council Chambers of Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, was attended by the Speaker of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, Hon. Yusuf Zailani, and principal officers of the Assenbly, commissioners and other aides of the Governor. Governor el-Rufai expressed delight that for the seventh consecutive year, Kaduna state is signing its appropriation bill into law well ahead of the first day of January. He explained that this alignment of the fiscal year and the calendar year has ensured that budget implementation can commence by 1st January of each year.
He attributed the consistent trend to the active collaboration between the Kaduna State House of Assembly and the executive for the benefit of the people of Kaduna state. Governor el-Rufai, while describing the budget as the budget of the people, commended the Kaduna State House of Assembly for its thorough work on the draft budget estimates, disclosing that the House of Assembly increased the budget size from the N233 billion proposed by the executive to N278.58 billion to accommodate more project requests. He expressed his personal gratitude to the Speaker and the entire membership of the House of Assembly across party lines for the cooperative and collaborative manner they have worked with the executive in the last six and a half years. The Speaker, Hon. Yusuf Zailani, in his remarks, explained that the legislature is fully aligned with the focus of the el-Rufai government to ensure human capital and infrastructure development across the state.