By Bayo Umar Abdulwahab
Ilorin
Governor of Kwara state, Abdulfatah Ahmed, has presented a budget estimate of N181, 886, 056, 555.00 (N182 billion) for the 2018 Financial Year.
Laying the budget before the lawmakers at the House of Assembly yesterday, Ahmed said the proposed budget reflects an increase of N15,781,009,150 (N15.8 billion) or 9.5 per cent compared to the 2017 Revised Appropriation.
Tagged “Budget of Sustained Growth and Prosperity,” the sum of N75, 204,257,902 (N75 billion) representing 41.3 per cent is for recurrent expenditure, while total sum of N106, 681,798,630 (107 billion) which represents 58.7 per cent was earmarked for capital expenditure.
Under the recurrent expenditure, N46,567,379,761 (N47 billion) representing 62 per cent is allocated as overhead cost which includes subventions to parastatal, support grants and contributions including overhead cost of tertiary institutions in the state. Personnel cost is expected to gulp N13, 918,001,894 (N14 billion) or 18.5 per cent of the total recurrent expenditure.
Ahmed explained that the 2018 budget proposal is formulated using the zero-based budgeting approach and its projections were based on the federal government adopted assumptions of oil price benchmark of $45 per barrel and oil production estimate of two point three million barrels per day.
The economic affairs sector has the highest allocation of N53, 744,166,521.00 (N54 billion) which represents 54.4 per cent of the total capital expenditure, while the health sector is allocated N23, 918,380,992.00 (N24 billion) representing 22.4 per cent.
Education sector has an allocation of N12, 628, 47,156 (N12.6 billion) which represents 11.8 per cent, while general public services has N7, 550, 770, 62.00 (N7.6 billion) representing 7.1 per cent of the total expenditure.
The governor said the government recorded 71 per cent implementation of the 2017 budget with modest achievements in key sectors despite the economic challenges.
