Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto on Thursday, presented the 2021 Appropriation Bill of ₦176,685,535,633.47 to the House of Assembly.
Tagged “Budget of Consolidation and Economic Emancipation”, the governor said government would lay emphasis on legacy projects, dry season farming, irrigation and reconstruction of flood-ravaged infrastructure, in order to safeguard and solidify our achievements.”
According to him, the budget is in consonance with the existing budgetary standing and prevailing fiscal projection, which would be serviced through an existing opening balance of N11,340,879,478.80; statutory allocation of ₦48,773,903,980.42; VAT of ₦17,052,170,179.01 and independent revenue ₦30,012,222,271.24.
Others are Aids Grants ₦10,345,759,754.00; Direct Receipts ₦10,345,000,000.00; Direct Capital Receipts ₦750,000,000.00; Commercial banks loans and bonds,₦32,500,000,000.00 and external loans and other borrowings ₦15,475,600,000.00.
Governor Tambuwal added that, of the N176,685,535,663.47 budget, personnel cost would gulp ₦36,199,656,390.09; Overhead Cost ₦30,032,230,567.20; Pension and Gratuities Public Debt Charges N4,200,000,000.00; interest Payment on Debt ₦9,126,517,733.05; Internal Debt Services (IDS) ₦1,600,000,000.00 and capital projects ₦95,527,130,973.13.
On sectoral allocation, Tambuwal stated, education has the highest of N38,784,571,035.78 followed by health, N20,770,716,027.29 and agriculture N17,905,299,159.00.
According to him, while capital expenditure of the total budget is fixed at 54%, recurrent spending is 46%.
“The budget will focus on the reconstruction and rehabilitation of infrastructure damaged/destroyed by this year’s flood disaster, while maintaining priority on the completion of ongoing infrastructural projects and the initiation of new ones across the state,” he said.
