“Don’t tell me what your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are”.
- James W. Frick
Annual budgets are tools that government at various levels prioritise their objectives for a particular financial year. In the case of Kaduna state, the 2024 budget, aptly titled “Budget of transformation of the rural areas and inclusive development”, makes a bold statement of where the Governor Uba Sani administration is headed. In the last seven months, Uba Sani, a first termer, had operated the budget he inherited from his predecessor.
But, like all tools, the results of a budget will always be solely determined by the effective uses to which they are deployed. The challenge for every government, especially the Uba Sani administration, is to prove the effectiveness of the budget as a tool to empower and create conducive environment for the people to achieve their full potential. Governments, not just Kaduna state government, need to prove that budgets can work, because previous budgets didn’t work, the people, the beneficiaries of budgets, questioned their purpose or, at best, saw them as mere annual rituals, due to their abysmal failure to provide essential services.
The task before Senator Uba Sani, governor of Kaduna state, who has been consistent as to the critical developmental objectives he wants to implement as he operates his very first budget which reflects his priorities, is to ensure that the laudable objectives of his “Budget of Rural Transformation for Inclusive Development” are vigorously implemented.
Thankfully, the Kaduna State House of Assembly expeditiously passed the budget, which Governor Sani has dutifully signed into law, and has vowed committed, immediate and full implementation. The swift passage of the budget by the House indicates a smooth working relationship between both arms of government.
The key objectives of the Kaduna state 2024 budget are reversion of the negative development indices of Kaduna state; to creatively and innovatively address the challenges of poverty and youth unemployment, women and youth empowerment. Other priorities are investment in human capital development, education, health, and agriculture for job creation for the teeming youth and food security. And to ensure a safe environment for farming and business, it has invested in the Kaduna State Vigilance Service, with the recruitment of 7,000 men and women, to complement the armed forces and police, while government has continued to robustly fund the federal security agencies. In words backed by strategic initiatives, security remains an area of topmost priority for Governor Uba Sani.
The total budget of N458,271,299,477.66 represents an increase of about N81 billion (21.7 percent) from the 2023 budget. It has a whopping N318,836,576,588.28 allocation for capital expenditure and a paltry N139,434,722,889.38 for recurrent expenditure, representing a capital to recurrent ratio of 69.57 to 30.43 percent. Clearly, the budget is realistic, in that it has taken into consideration the crunching economic situation of the country. Also, the governor has adjusted to the economic situation by marrying his dream of total transformation of the rural areas, by adopting the necessary fiscal discipline which will help the state weather the storm.
It must be stressed that most budgets fail to deliver on their “lofty” objectives of providing good roads, healthcare, schools, reduction in the high level of unemployment and the poor standard of living, simply because of the ratio.
In local parlance, Uba Sani has cut his clothes, not according to his size (ambition), but according to the available material due to the severe and massive impact of the removal of subsidy on petroleum products, galloping inflation, and the the exchange rate unification.
One impressive fact about Kaduna state 2024 budget is that Governor Sani has continued the progressive tradition laid by the Nasir El-Rufai administration, of implementing budgets that focus on the socio-economic development of the people. For instance, the increase in the recurrent budget by 2.9 percent this year, from the 2023 budget figures, and the 33.1 percent increase in the personnel cost allocation from the 2023 budget, is definitely a testimony to Governor Sani’s commitment to the welfare of public servants, the engine room for policy implementation.
Again, by prioritising rural development, the current administration has shown not just a commitment to inclusivity, but equitable distribution of resources accruing to the 11 million residents of the state, of which roughly five million live in the four local government areas in Kaduna Metropolitan Authority, and six million in the remaining 19 local government areas. This explains the governor’s aggressive transformation agenda of the rural areas. This is not to say that the El-Rufai administration neglected the rural areas, rather the notorious security challenges of his time conspired to undermine his developmental efforts.The bottom line is that, while the El-Rufai administration, with the urban renewal initiatives, modernised the three major towns of Kaduna, Kafanchan and Zaria; the current administration, by focusing on the rural areas, would bridge the wide gap between the urban and rural areas, thus creating a more balanced and prosperous Kaduna state. Both administrations are two sides of a coin.
In every sense, Sani’s 2024 budget is a good one, because it contains a realistic projection of expected revenue for the fiscal year. It also surpassed the recommended 60:40 ratio in favour of capital expenditure, as opposed to the era when recurrent expenditure surpassed capital expenditure. Ahmed Muktar, commissioner for budget and planning, deserves kudos for the well prepared budget.
Remarkably, this year’s budget is formulated in line with modern trends of bottom-up budgeting, as it was presented to the public for their input, an action that also indicates a commitment to accountability.
Clearly, the thrust of Sani administration is rural development through massive infrastructure development. But there is equally a high premium on human capital development, education, health, and agriculture sectors. The determination to revitalise agriculture sector has a twofold objective; job creation for the teeming youths and food security for all. To ensure a safe environment for farming and business activities, security continues to be topmost priority.
In 2024, the government intends to spend N115,421,129,011.16 or 25.19 percent of the budget on education, making Kaduna state one of the very few at any level to meet UNESCO’s requirement of 26 percent budgetary allocation to education. Also impressive is N93,597,652,206.40, which is one-fifth of the budget (20.42 percent) earmarked for the economic sector, which includes agriculture, public works, infrastructure and housing, and N71,647,821,975.33 (15.63 percent) for health. Governor Sani deserves special commendation for allocating 15.63 percent of the budget to the health sector an amount that marginally exceeded the 15 percent recommendation of the ‘Abuja Declaration’ of April, 2001, by the African Heads of State and Governments. The summit had encouraged states to allocate at least 15 percent of their annual budgets to the health sector in order to address the deficit in the healthcare system.
The bane of most budgets, which have made the realisation of their very “lofty” objectives of good roads, modern healthcare facilities, good schools, reduction in the unacceptable high level of unemployment and the poor standard of living a mirage year in, year out, is not just the late preparation, but also the poor implementation. It’s the implementation of budgets; the actual expenditure or application of public funds in carrying out the activities of government as captured in the budget that’s more critical.
Watching Uba Sani in the last seven months, one is amazed at his insistence on value for money and prudent management of public finances.
The “concerns or fears” being expressed by some civil society groups as to whether Governor Sani can generate the revenue to fund the budget is unwarranted. First, Sani understands that availability of money is key to effective implementation of the budget. This explains why the increase of 22.9 percent compared to the 2023 figure in expected revenue has been balanced by key fundamentals; of adjusting the budget to conform to realisable revenues in view of the current economic realities, improvement in the internal revenue generation and revenue collection capacity of the relevant state agencies. Other inspiring fiscal policies are the favourable proportion of capital to recurrent expenditure; funding of ongoing projects and reduction in backlog of inherited liabilities, while embarking on only new priority projects. Without doubt, Governor Sani’s arithmetics is spot on.
In 2024, the government expectation to generate N120,001,818,558.44 from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and N84,386,659,966.04 from the Federation Account is built on increased allocation to the states due to the petrol subsidy removal which has increased revenue shareable by the federal, state and local governments to over N1 trillion, and the more efficient collection of taxes by the Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service (KADIRS).
Despite the impressive performance of KADIRS, Governor Sani has indicated he would be demanding more from the agency and the other revenue collection agencies, like the Kaduna Information Geographical Information System (KADIGS). While KADIRS has proven its capacity to deliver, it needs Governor Sani’s support to effectively collect every kobo due to the government without necessarily expanding or increasing taxes. So, like economists would say, all things being equal, the funds to prosecute the governor’s laudable projects will be realised.
Without doubt, the expectations from Senator Uba Sani administration are high based on the contract between him and the people as captured in the SUSTAIN agenda, the basis on which he was elected. Thankfully, though Governor Sani assumed office at a rather challenging time, with the global economy in summersault, he has shown fiscal discipline in the management of the state’s resources, which will no doubt help the state in weathering the economic storm.
Postscript: Like in the last eight years, Kaduna state will begin the new financial year on the first day of January, which has placed it in a unique position to achieve full alignment of the calendar and fiscal years over the seventh consecutive budget cycles, a feat many states are struggling to attain.
Ado writes from Kaduna.
