By Our Correspondent in Minna
Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Ketso, the Deputy Governor of Niger state has become the first Deputy Governor in the state to present the state budget of N151.2 billion for the 2021 fiscal year to the Niger State House of Assembly.
Ketso, who said he wass standing in for his principal, Governor Abubarkar Sani Bello, currently on quarantine after testing positive to Corona Virus, said the 2021 Budget N151, 240,621, 776.00 tagged, “Budget of Prioritized Reality” wad 2.71% lower than the initial 2020 Budget of N155, 459, 814, 701.00.
The Deputy Governor said: “The 2021 budget is made up of N72, 503, 201, 830.88 representing 47.94% as Recurrent Estimate and N78,737,419,945.12 representing 52.06% of the budget size as Capital Estimates”.
The 2021 Niger state budget, according to the Deputy Governor,is to be financed through the usual traditional sources of; Statutory Allocation from Federation Account, Value Added Tax (VAT), Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and Capital Receipts.
“Out of the N151, 240, 621, 776 00 Proposed Budget, N71, 955, 049, 902.00 or 47.58% is expected to accrue from the Federation Account, N17, 999,524,715.00 representing 11.91% from VAT, while N14,744,770,399.00 or 9.74% is to be generated internally”.
He further explained that, “The sum of N42, 201, 250, 249.00, representing 27.90% of the budget was expected as Capital Receipt from Development Partners, Grants and Loans amongst others.
“Other expected revenue sources, he added include; dividends from North-South Power N500,000,000.00, Refund from National Electricity Liability Company (NELCO) N3,510,026,517.00 and Refund from Federal Roads N330,000,000.00 which account for 0.33%, 2.32% and 0.22% respectively”.
The Reporters reports that the Economic Sector has the highest allocation of, N54.257 billion or 68.90%, followed by the Social Sector with N16.084 billion or 20.42%, Administrative Sector, 9.02% or N7.095 billion while the state Law and Justice sector has a proposed estimate of, N1.3 billion.
Lamenting that the year 2020 has been tough on almost all fronts, Ketso said, “From COVID-19 pandemic to the most recent protest that engulfed the nation with its attendant catastrophe. Indeed, the impact of the pandemic affected almost all governments businesses globally”.
Responding, the Speaker of the Assembly, Abdullahi Bawa Wuse, assured that the lawmakers would, without delay, ensure that the budget is scrutinized and given speedy passage.
He, however, expressed sadness over the infrastructural decay, including security challenges but expressed the preparedness of the Assembly to partner with the Executive arm of government and security agencies to check the challenges.
