Governor Mohammed presenting the 2022 budget before the Bauchi State House of Assembly.
ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
A budget proposal of N195,355,607,143 for the 2022 fiscal year has been presented by the Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed to the Bauchi State House of Assembly for consideration and passage.
The governor who presented the budget to the lawmakers at plenary on Thursday, said the budget comprises of recurrent expenditure of N84.735bn representing 43%. The capital expenditure receives N110.620bn or 57% of the entire budget proposal.
He said that the budget is christened “Budget of Consolidation and Continuous Commitment”.
According to him, the budget is 8.5 percent lower than the 2021 budget, saying that the reduction was to enable the state arrive at a projection based on the current economic realities especially the state’s ability to meet the expected revenues.
He said the 2022 budget has been predicated on the national assumptions of oil production of 1.88 million barrels per day; bench mark oil price of 57 US dollars per barrel, an exchange rate of N410.15 to the US dollar and an improved and efficient system of internally generated revenue collection.
Governor Mohammed said that the sum of N107.041bn was earmarked as recurrent revenue made up of internally generated revenue of N24.494bn statutory allocation of N66.938bn and VAT of 15.608bn.
He explained that the recurrent expenditure estimates with a total sum of N84.735bn has personnel cost as N37.004bn and overhead cost as N47.730bn.
He stated that the State projects that it will realize capital receipts in the sum of N71.926bn which will come from Loans (Internal & External) of N37.359bn, Aids and Grants of N27.035bn and Other Capital Receipts of N7.531bn.
According to the governor, in the capital expenditure which has N110.620bn, the economic sector takes the highest share of N57.074bn while the social sector has N30.232bn. He added that the regional, administrative and law and justice sectors were allocated N13.967bn, N7.485bn and N1.860bn respectively.
Mohammed said that the government had, in the course of the preparation of the 2022 Budget, taken the into consideration the completion of on-going projects, proposed new projects only on the basis of critical need and the immediate impact it would make on the lives of the people and ensured reduction in non-essential overheads.
He added that it was also done in “Compliance with Budget guidelines issued by the Nigerian Governors Forum to ensure peer review and comparability, maintenance of critical spending on core Government services, compliance with debt servicing or repayment agreements in order to meet up our obligations, application of loans only to finance critical capital expenditure projects and target favourable sources of Capital Receipts and financing such as Aids and Grants, PPP, etc .
“In the process, the preparation of the budget has been all inclusive. Budget Public Hearings were conducted in the three Senatorial Districts where inputs from Stakeholders were elicited and incorporated into the Budget.”
He appealed to the lawmakers to “expedite action towards passing the Budget into law to enable government implement the programmes and projects that will have significant impact on our people.”
Responding, the Speaker of the Assembly, Abubakar Suleiman, assured the governor that the lawmakers are ready to show the same commitment as they did last year and passed the budget before the end of December, for the good of the people of Bauchi State.
He said: “We will scrutinize the budget diligently and ensure its timely passage. We cannot afford to return to the old practice, we must do everything possible within the powers conferred on us by the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria to pass the budget.
“We want to assure the government and people of Bauchi State that we will work with Ministries, Departments and Agencies to deliver the budget that meets the yearnings and aspirations of the people.
“While doing that, we will maintain the highest standard of integrity that our discussions and deliberations will be motivated by considerations of the people of Bauchi State.”
