Ganduje Presents N275bn Budget, N64.39bn To Be Spent On Infrastructural Projects

Kano State governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, on Monday presented a N275 billion 2016 budget, tagged “Budget of Self Reliance”. While presenting the budget, he reiterated on his pledge to infrastructural projects and others, stating that in his inaugural speech on May 29, he stated that the direction of his administration would be hinged “on continuation, consolidation, fine tuning of ongoing critical infrastructural projects embarked upon by the previous administrations”.

The governor noted that while completing the existing projects, he would also initiate more people-oriented policies and programmes for the development of the state.

“Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, it could be recalled that we have inherited over 2000 ongoing projects from the previous administration.

“As a responsible government that believes in the continuity of laudable projects initiated to meet the needs and aspirations of the good people of Kano, despite the financial resource constraints, we were committed to the completion of these projects and have recorded some modest successes in many critical sectors of the economy as well,” he said.

Presenting the budget before the State House of Assembly, Mr. Ganduje said the proposed capital expenditure for the 2016 fiscal year was put at N192billion, which was higher than that of 2015 by N56billion.

He said it would be financed by N74billion expected recurrent revenue surplus and total capital receipts of N117billion.

“The capital receipts are made up of N29,440,151,690 expected internal and external loans drawdown; N52,390,307,543 estimated grants; N35,483,609,076 miscellaneous receipts and; treasury opening balance of N100,000,000,” he said.

Mr. Ganduje said the total recurrent revenue to be collected was estimated at N157billion.

According to him, it consists of N60billion Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, and N97billion revenue from the Federation Account, FAAC.

He said the total recurrent revenue was higher than that of year 2015 by N44billion or 28 percent, while the IGR was higher than that of year 2015 by N14billion, which represents 31percent increase.

“This will be made possible with the on-going reform done to the Board of Internal Revenue and the engagement of consultants, which will provide us with better strategies and new ideas of revenue collections,” he said.

The governor also announced that N64.39 billion would to be spent on infrastructure and development in the budget; N23.65 billion on education and; N13.3 billion on water supply and rural development.

Mr. Ganduje said N100 million would be spent on the reopening of the state-owned newspaper, Triumph Newspapers, closed by his predecessor, Rabiu Kwankwaso.

He also lauded Mr. Kwankwaso, saying he laid a foundation upon which he was building.

“I would like to pay tribute to him (Kwankwaso) for laying a strong and solid foundation upon which this government is building upon,” Mr. Ganduje said.