2023 budget: Bauchi allocates N10 billion to SSG’s office, N5 billion to Agriculture
Mohammed Kaka Misau, Bauchi
The Bauchi state government has allocated the sum of N10 billion to the office of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) while N5 billion was billed to be spent by the ministry of agriculture in the 2023 fiscal year.
The state Commissioner of budget and planning, Alhaji Aminu Hamayyo stated this Thursday while giving the breakdown of the over N200 billion 2023 budget estimate which was presented to the state assembly by Governor Bala Mohammed of the state for approval on Wednesday.
According to him, “we have the office of the SSG which has allocation of N10,180,889,545.96 kobo (Ten billion, one hundred and eighty million, eight hundred and eighty nine thousand, five hundred and forty five naira, ninety six Kobo) which is about 5 percent”.
For ministry of agriculture, the Commissioner said, has an allocation of N5,42,681,281.17 Kobo (five billion, forty two million, six hundred and eighty one thousand, two hundred and eighty one naira, seventeen Kobo), that’s about 2.5 percent of the budget. I think these are the key top ten MDAs.
“We also have the ministry of finance with allocation of about twenty two billion nine hundred and forty five million, one hundred and sixty thousand, twenty three naira eighty five Kobo, this is about 11.3 percent”, the Commissioner said.
Further breaking down the budget in his office, the Commissioner explained that the office of the head of service and that of the pension board together, got the allocation of N13,333,58,043.63 (thirteen billion, three hundred and thirty three million, fifty eight thousand, forty three naira, sixty three kobo, representing about 3.6 percent.
The Commissioner who recalled that the state governor had on Wednesday presented the budget tagged ‘Budget of Accomplishment and Renewed Commitment’ said that the budget was prepared in line with the 2023-2025 mid term expenditure framework.
“We’ve made our projection for the revenue including capital receipts on the basis of certain number of assumptions on oil production benchmark of about 1.5 million barrels per day, a crude oil price of about 70 dollars per barrel”, he said.
According to the honourable Commissioner, the projection also put the official exchange rate at about N435 to a dollar, adding that the state government based its assumption for internal grants actual receipts and performances for the previous years.
He said that the assumption put external grant on the basis of bilateral and multi-literal agreements signed with partners.
He said various ministries, departments and agencies of government guided by the fiscal budget envelopes provided were advised to prepare and submit their proposals taking into consideration, the completion of the ongoing projects, especially capital projects.
The Commissioner further explained that the MDAs were advised consider that only critical projects with urgent need that will have immediate impact on the citizens were proposed, reduction in non essential overhead, maintain critical spending only on core Government services, among others.
He said that the budget was proposed in such a way that government will target loans only to finance critical capital expenditures.
“We will target favourable sources of aids and grants, including public private partnership (PPP)”, he said.
The Commissioner pointed out that public consultations were made in all the three senatorial zones of the state and inputs were received into the budget process based on the discussions with the MDAs and based on their submissions and further reviews.
“The draft budget for the 2023 fiscal year is in the sum of N202,641,558,614.46 (Two hundred and two billion, six hundred and forty one million, five hundred and fifty eight thousand, six hundred and fourteen naira, forty six Kobo).
He explained that the 2023 budget estimate has a capital component of 53 percent and a recurrent component of 47 percent.