Ahmed signs 2017 budget

Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State has assented to N160.9 billion 2017 budget as passed by the Kwara State House of Assembly.

Speaking during the signing ceremony in his office on Wednesday, Governor Ahmed said with the signing of the budget into law, his administration would commence execution of some major capital projects immediately, starting with the new campuses of Kwara State University (KWASU) and all other major projects across the state.

“I want to assure you that as we sign the budget into law, we will hit the ground running. In this regard, some major capital projects slated for execution this year will be flagged-off from next week.

“We will start with the campuses of Kwara State University we are building for Ilorin School of Governance, College of Agriculture in Ilesha-Baruba and of course, the Osi campus. We will also be flagging-off the Dual Carriage roads and all other projects”, he said.

He said his government was working round the clock to ensure that funding for the budget was made available through the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for optimal implementation of the Appropriation law.

Governor Ahmed also said that he would uphold adherence to the provisions of the budget.

While commending the House of Assembly for its professional approach to legislative function, Governor Ahmed said the House would however be approached for supplementary appropriation where the need arises.

Earlier, the Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Ali Ahmad said the House had passed a budget of N160.9 billion with over N90 billion devoted to capital expenditure where all the indices put in place by international organizations were present.

He said it was a budget that would be different from all the budgets earlier passed in the state.

Hon Ahmad stated that with the injection of significant capital expenditure into the economy that the state would move out of recession faster than expected.

It will be recalled that Governor Ahmed presented the 2017 budget estimate of N135,064,529,461 to members of the State House of Assembly for consideration and approval on 29th December, 2016.  However, the approved budget was increased by the House to N160.9b, with N90.1b voted for capital expenditure, while N70.7 was allocated to recurrent expenditure.