By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Kaduna State House of Assembly on Friday approved the 2017 budget presented to it by the Governor, Mr Nasir El-Rufai, which is worth N215 billion.
On October 12, 2016, the Governor presented the N214.921 billion appropriation bill to the state lawmakers for their consent.
The 2017 budget is N172 billion more than what was approved by the Assembly for 2016.
In the budget passed by the Assembly, recurrent expenditure gulped N83.46 billion, while the capital spending is N131.45 billion.
An analysis of the draft shows education, infrastructure, and health getting the biggest budgetary allocations.
While education got N44.84 billion, health received N10.49 billion, water gulped N8.6 billion, infrastructure took N24.50 billion and agriculture N4.6 billion.
The 2017 budget is designed to deliver the following outcomes:
- Completion of the Zaria Water Project
- Unprecedented Rebuilding and Equipping of Schools
- A massive programme to rehabilitate, maintain or rebuild Township Roads
- Creation of a green economic zone – an Agro-Industrial Park along Abuja Road
- Provision of infrastructure in Mining Sites and Rural Areas
- Conversion of Doka Hospital on the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway into a Trauma Centre
- Expansion of the Post-harvest price support for farmers
- Anchor Borrowers Programme for six crops of comparative advantage,
- Kick-off the Kaduna Light Rail Phase to link Rigachikun with the Refinery, and
- Implementation of an Emergency Nutrition Intervention Programme to reduce malnutrition and hunger amongst our poorest citizens and children.
The lawmakers commended the Governor for giving priority to the education, infrastructure and health sectors.
