Agaju Madugba, Katsina
Katsina State Governor Aminu Bello Masari has proposed a total budget of N282,787 billion for the 2021 fiscal year.
The budget, according to the Governor, comprises 70 per cent capital expenditure and 30 per cent recurrent expenditure.
Making the budget presentation on the floor of the House of Assembly on Wednesday, Masari noted that, ‘it is important to note that the 2021 recurrent revenue has increased by 37.20 per cent over that of 2020 revised budget.
‘Similarly, the recurrent expenditure in the 2021 budget has increased by 20.85 per cent which indicates that in real terms the revenue has increased by about 37.20 per cent over that of the 2020 fiscal year.’
He said that the 2021 budget would be financed by the sum of N115,072,400,744.00 revenue expected from the Federation Account as well as N57,180,527,226.00 Internally Generated Revenues and revenues from the MDAs and balances of the 2020 budget.
A breakdown of the sectoral allocations shows that the economic sector under capital expenditure has the highest allocation of N135,947,481,051.00, translating to 48 per cent of the entire budget and the social sector got N104,138,897,800.00(36.83) per cent, Education has N19,201,403,309.00 (12.17) per cent allocation and Health, N26,983,923,319.00 (17.10) per cent among others.
Masari said, ‘the COVID-19 pandemic has no doubt affected not only the economy of Katsina State and Nigeria but the economy of all countries across the globe.
‘Taking into consideration the economic realities emerging from the pandemic, the state government had to review the approved 2020 Appropriation Law twice in order to address the gaps thus created.
‘During our recent oath-taking as Government of Katsina State for the second term, we pledged to improve the welfare of people and provide them with the necessary infrastructure that will make life easy across the State.
‘Despite all the challenges, the Government has within the 2020 financial year executed meaningful projects and programmes that impacted positively on the people of Katsina State. This can be verified in each of the 34 local government areas of the state.
‘We, therefore, call on people of Katsina State to bear with the situation and have confidence in the government in its resolve to improve the lives of the people of the State.
‘We are glad to note that there is relative improvements as normalcy is gradually setting-in across the world.’