Education and health sectors got the lion shares in Bauchi State 2017 Appropriation Bill as presented to the state House of Assembly by Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar.
Bauchi State Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Idris Abdullahi, told journalists that education was allocated N27,451,758,860, while health got N23,409,475,630, which represent 18.87 and 16.09 per cent respectively of the budget.
Giving the breakdown of the budget, Abdullahi, who is overseeing the Ministry of Budget and Planning, stated that the state government wanted to give priority attention to both education and health in the 2017 fiscal year.
He said that Governor Abubakar administration wanted to improve the level and quality of education in the state.
He stated further that government has embarked on the reconstruction of many schools across the state and new buildings of some schools, declaring that education is the backbone of life without which the world is empty.
According to the commissioner, health is the cardinal point of the Governor Abubakar administration, saying that there was the need to address the sector holistically, which informed the development of a five-point health agenda for the state.
He added that the state was implementing the national policy guidelines for Primary Health Care under one roof, and that “these explain why government allocated the second largest share to the health sub-sector.”
The commissioner noted that the 2017 budget, tagged, “Budget for Sustainable Development”, was designed to bring development in Bauchi State.
He stated that the administration was ready to cut cost of governance in the state, adding as part of measures to do so, the state’s ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) were being reduced from 28 to 16.
Abdullahi further stated that the tenure of permanent secretaries in the state was also being reduced to eight years, while there was drastic reduction in government expenditures.
Giving the budget breakdown, he disclosed that the 2017 Appropriation Bill of N145,447,258,163 is made up of N58,845, 256,077 as recurrent expenditure and N86, 602, 002,086 as capital expenditure.
He said that the state’s projected revenues for the 2017 fiscal year include Internally Generated Revenues (IGRs) of N11,182, 705,791 and statutory allocation of N56,500,000,000, making a total of N67,682,705,791.
Giving the breakdown of the recurrent expenditure, the commissioner said that personnel costs will gulp N28, 087,755,798; while overhead costs N20, 715,164,065; CRF charges (statutory officer holder’s salaries) N841,784,583, while CRF (pensions and gratuities) is allocated N6,500,000,000.
He stated that public debt charges made up of internal loans repayment and external loans repayment would gulp N2,054,603,958 and N645,947,673, respectively.
Abdullahi disclosed that funds were allocated to capital expenditure based on sectors, saying that administrative sector got N5,987,600,151; economic sector has N43,486,748,923.
Other sectors are law and justice, N1,754,047,498; regional, N3,478,415,027, and social, N31,895,190,487.
The 2017 budget, the commissioner said, would be funded by an opening balance of N250,000,000; statutory allocation/excess crude of N56,000,000,000; value added tax, NN16,500,000,000; independent revenue, N11,182,705,791; aids and grants, N18,012,205,517; capital receipts, N13,881,803,200; internal loans, N21,460,000,000, and external loans, N8,160,543,655.
Giving the details of sectoral allocations in the budget, Abdullahi said that N27,451,758,860 would be spent on education; N23,409,475,630 would go to health while N20,905,218,270 would be spent also on road constructions and infrastructure development.
Others are agriculture which got N6,760,598,985, while water supply will get N13,164,151,623; rural development, N3,553,608,942 and commerce and industry will be given N3,461,597,659, respectively.
