Olanrewaju Lawal,Birnin Kebbi
   Kebbi Governor, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, has signed a revised amended budget proposal of N99.6 billion for the 2020 fiscal year presented by the state House of Assembly.
  While signing the budget in Birnin Kebbi on Wednesday, Bagudu explained that the budget for the fiscal year was down from N138 billion to N99.6 billion of little reduction of over N38 billion.
“The amendment is like no other in the past; it is occasioned by the global coronavirus pandemic that has affected all countries in very devastating manner as revenues have drastically shrunk.
“This amended budget have been from the input from World Bank, and Kebbi state is one of the states that are participating in the state physically transparency and accountability framework of the World Bank, and the World Bank offered to assist States with additional financing of $750 million USD to deal with this coronavirus pandemic ” he said.
He added that one of the conditions for being eligible was passage of an amended budget with input from world bank.
According to him, the budget must be signed and published on/or before July 31.
“I am happy today we have signed the budget as a result of the commendable effort of the state house of assembly under the able leadership of Alhaji Abdulmumeen Kamba, and members of the house who made their sacrifice of their time to pass it in recorded time,” he said.
Bagudu also revealed that  the state had recorded modest giant stride in spite of the covid-19 pandemic.
“The contractors handling Illo – Banu road have returned to the site, and the ones handling Rijau- Unashi have resumed work on the bridges.
” Equally, 12.5 kilogrammes bar of gold was recently collated by our artisanal miners , and we hope by the end of the year, we will present tones of gold from the state.
“We have signed an agreement with NGO courtesy of the Ministry of Lands and Housing, and Ministry of Finance for the construction 5,000 houses in different locations across the state, and the project will start later than this month.
“Sequel to the signing of the agreement, we provided operational vehicles and all the support that we should provide,” he said.
He, however, acknowledged that the state government was committed to the financial autonomy of the house of assembly and legislatures.
The governor thanked the assembly ,Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, ministry of Finance, Auditor General, Nigeria’s Governors Forum,  NGOs and World Bank ,who saw the need to do what he discerned as,” painful amendment.”
Earlier, the Speaker the House of Assembly, Hon. Abdulmumin Samaila Kamba, expressed delight over the presentation of the budget to the governor, adding that it was transmitted to the house on July 14..