By Billy Graham Abel, Yola
The Adamawa state governor, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, has presented the 2022 Budget estimate of about N163.6 billion to the adamawa state house of assembly, Thursday, in Yola, Adamawa state.
The proposed budget which was tagged, “The Budget of Sustainable Hope” for 2022 Fiscal year is made up of recurrent expenditure of N98.9 Billion, representing 60% of the total Budget while the balance of N64.8 billion is for Capital development projects representing 40%.
Fintiri said, as a result of the cooperation enjoyed from the state house of assembly, his government has in the last two years, been able, to impact positively on the lives and livelihood of the people of Adamawa state and that it has been able to change the entire narrative of the state and of governance in Nigeria.
The governor said, as a result of the prudent management of the state resources, it has been able to scale-down overhead cost of the state from what it inherited, N26 billion in 2019 to about N18 billion in 2021, a feat he said is the first to be achieved by a state government in recent Nigerian history.
Speaking on the vision and expectations of the 2022 budget, Gov. Ahmadu Fintiri said, “Speaker, Honourable Members, I am indeed glad to present the 2022 budget proposal to this Honourable House.
“This is the third Appropriation Bill since the inception of this administration. For my administration, this privilege should not be seen as an occasion for the mere ritual of tabling proposed appropriation but an opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate the productive partnership we have collectively nurtured as distinct organs of government with right partnership for the delivery of good governance to the good citizens of Adamawa State.
“To sustain what this administration has already begun, we have tagged the 2022 budget as “The Budget of Sustainable Hope”.
He further explained that the budget is in line with his policy thrust and the continued determination of his administration “To pursue with greater vigor the emancipation of the State economy, the 2022 Proposed Budget has been carefully packaged to consolidate on the steady gains recorded in the years 2020 and 2021 Budgets.
“Accordingly, the State Government has proposed a Budget of One Hundred and Sixty-Three Billion, Six Hundred and Twenty Nine Million, Nine Hundred and Ten Thousand, Forty Naira (N163,629,910,040.00), for its Projects and programmes in 2022 Fiscal year.
“It is formulated in line with the 2022-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper as a matter of Economic Planning and Policy as earlier submitted before this Honourable House.
“The Bill highlights the draft estimates of the State’s Revenue and Expenditure and provides broad outline of the plans and programmes this administration intends to implement with zeal and commitment to enhance the socio-economic development of our dear State.
“Our governance agenda is not fancy conjecture but ideas that are rooted in deeply held ideals and hard assessment of what is required to build a good society, to empower our people and overcome the legacy of decades of neglect and failures in delivering public goods.
“This governance agenda is poignantly captured and expressed in our emerging slogan of “No one is Left behind and Nothing is left Untouched”, which is now becoming popular across the State.
“While instituting a culture of discipline around these key drivers, to engender transparency and accountability, we submitted completely to the Treasury Single Account System (TSA) to manage Revenue Collection and Accounting Processes, Capital and Recurrent Expenditure Payments. This helped us to record all government inflows of revenues from IGR, FAAC and other sources. ”
Outlining the gains of his administration in the implemention of the previous budgets, he said, “Today as I speak to you, we have been able to record unprecedented gains in the reduction of overhead cost. From an overhead cost of 26 Billion Naira in 2019 to 18 Billion Naira in 2021. Unarguably, we are the first to achieve this in Nigeria, in recent times.
“This, our reputable credit rating agency found encouraging especially in this era of a galloping inflation and the global pandemic caused by the Covid-19.”
“We achieved discipline in our budgetary process and implementation. This led to the budget size of N244 Billion earlier approved by our predecessors in 2019 to be reduced to N143 Billion for 2020 which was considered more realistic even for 2019.
“We equally achieved prompt payment of Salaries and Pension of workers and retirees. We have been faithful to our commitment to pay the wages and pensions of our workers as at when due; we are among the first state to implement the upward review of minimum wages which was passed at N30,0000.00.
“We not only implemented the minimum wage as approved by the Federal Government, but implemented a Minimum wage of N32,000.00 to Civil Servants on GL 1 – 6 and also agreed on the consequential adjustments to those on GL 7 and above to civil servants of the State. ”
He added that, “We have provided a modern Infectious Diseases Center (IDC) to manage and contain epidemics generally.
“This has been put to use in the containment of COVID-19 Pandemic and now adopted for the Cholera menace. To improve the quality-of-service delivery in our Primary Health Centers, we have recruited over 1,200 personnel into the Primary Health care system; constructed 22 Primary Health Care Facilities and renovated over 20 existing facilities across the State with support from our partners.
“We have been able to achieve all these in the face of glaring impossibilities.
“This is further worsened by the hard effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the economy globally.
“As a responsible government, we deployed adequate resources into the design of an economic response stimuli for the State. While admitting that the situation is tough, it can only be tougher for those who refuse to act at the right time.”
The Adamawa state governor maintains that his budgetary expectations are consistent with his plans to strategies for refocusing the state priorities in line with the projected revenue in order to meet its developmental goals.