From: Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State has proposed to spend N27 billion out of N170.2 billion planned for the 2018 financial year.
Governor Shettima, while presenting the 2018 Appropriation and Financial Bill to the state House of Assembly, on Thursday, said the allocation of highest amount to education sector was informed by the decision the need to tackle problems in the education sector.
He said the 2018 budget proposal titled, ‘Budget of Resettlement and Empowerment,’ was aimed at resettling and empowering the people particularly thousands of citizens displaced by the nearly eight years Boko Haram insurgency.
He explained that the budget would be financed through Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) estimated at N16.8 million and statutory allocation from the federation account totaling N115, 834,194,000. He put expected capital receipt at N38, 469,772 billion.
The governor also said the total capital expenditure was estimated to cost N108,408,580 billion and the total recurrent expenditure is N61,870,934 billion. The 2018 budget size, he noted, is less than that of 2017 by N13,560,875,081.00 which represents 7.38%.
Announcing sectoral allocations, Shettima said N12.6 was set aside for building infrastructures and management of Secondary school education, N10.3 billion for tertiary schools and N4.4 billion for primary and junior secondary schools through the State’s Universal Basic Education Commission with the combine total for education, standing at N27.2 billion.
Following education is infrastructure development including construction of roads and drainages estimated to cost N22.6 billion.
“I am happy to announce that most of the schools, health centres and residential houses in some of the Local Governments destroyed during the insurgency, have been reconstructed and services fully restored,” he stated.