Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State on Wednesday presented an Appropriation Bill of N176.123 billion to the state House of Assembly for approval.
Bello, represented by his deputy, Chief Edward Onoja, said the budget was based on conservative projections.
In his address, Bello noted that the draft 2020 budget presents another opportunity to work together to achieve what is best for Kogi State.
He pointed out that the 2020-2022 Multi-Year Budget was premised on zero-based budgeting principles and tailored towards actualizing the state’s development plan.
According to him, the appropriation is aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of spending, ensure greater control of the wage bill and also directing capital expenditure to critical infrastructure.
He also mentioned key sectors like Agriculture, Health, Education, Solid minerals and others as major beneficiaries of the budget aimed at economic revitalization and prosperity.
He affirmed that his administration would strive to complete every single project started in each of the 21 Local Government Areas, initiate new ones and also pay the contractors that have been commissioned to work.
Governor Bello also promised to cut the cost of governance and ensure that that the people were the ultimate beneficiaries of public resources.
He said the budget represented an increase of N17.951 billion or 10.19 per cent over the 2019 figure of N158.172billion.
He said the budget was made up of N78.969billion recurrent expenditure representing 44.84 per cent and N97.153 billion capital expenditure representing 55 per cent.
The governor added that N17.5 billion was expected from Value Added Tax (VAT), N120 million from excess crude account and N100 million from exchange rate differential and N130.8 billion as refund from Federal Government.
He said the budget had recurrent revenue of N92.932billion consisting of N21.032 billion Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and N50.428billion Federation Account allocation.
The economic sector with N61.907 billion representing 35.1 per cent got the highest sectoral allocation, while administration got the second largest allocation with N57.234 billion representing 32.5 per cent.
Others were social sector with N49.3 billion, representing 28 per cent; law and justice with N7.6 billion representing 4.3 per cent.
Governor Bello stated that he is confident that the state assembly would ensure a proper scrutiny and approve a budget that would be in the interest of the State, particularly its people.
In his opening address, Speaker of the Assembly, Prince Matthew Kolawole promised speedy assessment and scrutiny of the 2020 budget to facilitate its prompt implementation.
