Niger Gov Presents N108bn Budge for 2017

By Saka Bolaji , Minna

Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, has presented a budget proposal of over N108 billion to the state House of Assembly for consideration for the 2017 fiscal year.

Education sector gets large chunk of the budget tagged ‘Budget of Consolidation’.

The budget is N22.9 billion and 21.27 % more than the 2016 budget.

Governor Bello, while presenting the budget to the House of Assembly, said the proposed budget comprised of a recurrent expenditure of N48,047,960,278 which is 44.45% and Capital Expenditure of N60,026,337,973 which is 55.55% of the budget size.

He said that the budget would be generated through Statutory Allocation of N50,695,206,724, Value Added Tax (VAT) of N8,793,474,040, Internally Generated Revenue of N12,403,874,117, Paris club loan N13,400,000,000 and Capital Receipts of N22,781,770,379.

The Governor further said that the budget would focus on youth and women empowerment as they constitute a large part of the population; completion of projects; enhancement of IGR; re-introduction of teachers’ colleges; transformation of education and development of waterworks.

In his remarks the Speaker of the state House of Assembly Honourable Ahmed Marafa said the lawmakers will ensure the passage of the bill in a shortest and record time.