Education tops as capital projects get 65% in Borno’s N170b budget

Governor Kashim Shettima has presented Borno’s 2018 Budget of N170. 2 billion with Education getting the highest chunk of N27 billion.

In the resettlement appropriation estimate, 65 percent of the bill has been air marked for capital projects leaving recurrent estimates with N61.8 billion.

‎Addressing the State Assembly in Maiduguri on Thursday,  the Governor announced that the bill titled,  ‘Budget of Resettlement and Empowerment’ is to be financed from expected Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of N16,075,548,000.00, while allocation from the Federation Accounts of N115,734,194,000.00 and Capital Receipt of N38,469,772,000.00 were suggested.

He explained that the total capital expenditure is N108,408,580,000.00 and the total recurrent expenditure is N61,870,934,000.00. ‎

The 2018 budget size, he noted, is less than that of 2017 by N13,560,875,081.00 which represents 7.38%.

Shettima said that N12.6b was set aside for building infrastructures and management of Secondary school education, N10.3 billion for tertiary schools and N4.4 billion for primary and junior secondary schools through the State’s Universal Basic Education Commission with the combined total for education, , standing at N27.2 billion.

Trailing Education, the Governor said that N22.6 billion will go into construction of major roads, drainage and boosting transport through the State Ministry of Works and Transport, N17.7 billion for Healthcare infrastructures, consumables‎ and other related needs, N9.8 billion to complete reconstruction of destroyed communities, rehabilitation and resettlement of victims of insurgency while N8 billion was set aside for Agriculture.

Other sectors got different ranges of allocations that were less than the listed sectors.

The Governor recalled that “during the 2017 fiscal year, the State Government made deliberate efforts to reconstruct or rehabilitate all the major institutional structures and residential buildings in the various Local Government Areas which were wantonly destroyed by the insurgents”.

“I am happy to announce that most of the schools, health centres and residential houses in some of the Local Governments destroyed during the insurgency, have been reconstructed and services fully restored. These Local Governments include Konduga, Damasak, Dikwa, Askira/Uba, Kaga and Mafa.

“Also IDPs from these Local Governments as well as those from Damboa, Ngala and Monguno, have been safely returned to their homes. To ensure that these IDPs are engaged in some economic ventures, the State Government, during the period under review has undertaken the training of the youths and women in skills acquisition and also provided them with entrepreneurship kits and farm inputs. Building materials have also been distributed to some of the IDPs to rebuild their homes” he noted.

Shettima listed numerous areas of achievements recorded by his administration in 2017, with specific mention of schools, roads, hospitals and houses constructed in addition to what was achieved in Agriculture, humanitarian needs amongst other areas.