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Kwara Assembly passes 2024 budget, reduces it by 3.7bn
Kwara State House of Assembly has passed the 2024 appropriation bill of #292,741,292,132.30 presented to the House of Assembly by Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq into law.
Governor AbdulRazaq had on the 14th day of December last year, presented a budget of #296,457,875,578.00 to the legislative arm of government, with the House passing it after a downward review of #3,716,583,446 representing a 1.5 percentage decrease in the appropriation.
The Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Engr. Yakubu Danladi-Salihu while presiding over the plenary commended his colleagues especially the appropriation committee under the Chairmanship of Hon. Fatimoh Arinola Lawal for the due diligence and success of the exercise and called for sustained efforts to ensure that the budget is substantially implemented and that the State gets value for the public fund to be expended.
Rt. Hon. Engr. Danladi-Salihu explained that the budget passed puts Capital Expenditure at 61% of the total Budget size while the Recurrent Expenditure now takes 39% as presented by the Governor, adding that Kwara State has adopted the newly introduced budget template of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF that has been designed in line with global best practices in budgeting.
He added that with the latest development, the Kwara State legislature has therefore, again, blazed the trail in this direction and has consolidated her age-long front-line position in the comity of State Legislatures in the Federation.
“Recall also that the annual budgets of the State in the recent past conformed with the Fiscal reform of the State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability, and Sustainable; SFTAS program. It is gladdening to note that our dear State reaped the benefits of doing so while the program lasted up till the end of the 1st Quarter of 2023 when it wound down. With the full adaptation and domestication of the National Charts of Accounts in the preparation of the 2024 budget, Kwara has again keyed into the newly introduced State Action on Business Enabling Reforms; SABER that has come to take the place of SFTAS. This budget 2024 of the government of Kwara State that has just been passed is therefore in full compliance with the SABER template and this has placed the State at a vantage position of eligibility for intervention funds from the Economic reform program”, the Speaker noted.
Rt. Hon. Danladi-Salihu also commended Governor AbdulRazaq for the budget of economic expansion and collective prospects and for his commitment towards sustaining payment of counterparts funds to develop the state.
“I wish to commend His Excellency, Mall Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, CON, the Executive Governor of Kwara State on the contents of the budget tagged budget of Economic Expansion and Collective Prospect. The Budget, no doubt, will consolidate on the achievements of this administration in its first four years by ensuring the completion of all ongoing legacy projects and the introduction of new ones in order to enhance continuous growth and development. Let me also state that this Hon. House appreciates the Governor for sustaining the present administration’s commitment to payment of counterpart funds that will enable the State access fund required for overall development in all sectors”.
Sheu Abdulkadir Yusuf, mnipr
CPS to the Rt Hon Speaker, KWHA
