The Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, has presented a budget estimate of N181, 886, 056, 555.00 (N182 billion) for the 2018 Financial Year.
Laying the budget before the lawmakers at the State House of Assembly on Thursday, Mr Ahmed said the proposed budget reflects an increase of N15,781,009,150 (N15.8 billion) or 9.5 percent compared to the 2017 Revised Appropriation.
Tagged “Budget of Sustained Growth and Prosperity”, the sum of N75,204,257,902 (N75 billion) representing 41.3 percent is for recurrent expenditure, while total sum of N106,681,798,630 (107 billion) which represents 58.7 percent is earmarked for capital expenditure.
Under the recurrent expenditure, N46,567,379,761 (N47 billion) representing 62 percent is allocated as the overhead cost which includes subventions to parastatals, support grants and contributions including the overhead cost of tertiary institutions in the state. Personnel cost is expected to gulp N13,918,001,894 (N14 billion) or 18.5 percent of the total recurrent expenditure.
Mr Ahmed explained that the 2018 budget proposal is formulated using the zero-based budgeting approach and its projections were based on the federal government adopted assumptions of oil price benchmark of $45 per barrel and oil production estimate of two point three million barrels per day.
The economic affairs sector has the highest allocation of N53,744,166,521.00 (N54 billion) which represents 54.4 percent of the total capital expenditure, while the health sector is allocated N23,918,380,992.00 (N24 billion) representing 22.4 percent.
The Education Sector has an allocation of N12,628,47,156 (N12.6 billion) which represents 11.8 percent, while general public services have N7,550,770,62.00 (N7.6 billion) representing 7.1 percent of the total expenditure.
Governor Ahmed said the government recorded 71 percent implementation of the 2017 budget with modest achievements in key sectors despite the economic challenges.
