El-Rufai signs 2020 budget into law

Governor Nasir El Rufai has signed Kaduna State’s 2020 budget, 29 days before the end of the year.

At the signing ceremony on Monday, the governor disclosed that the budget size is N259.25bn, out of which N184.1bn (71%) is for capital expenditure.

The governor also welcomed the N75bn allocated for capital spending in the Education and Health sectors, describing the budget as reinforcing the government’s governance agenda to build human capital and promote equal opportunity.

Malam El-Rufai noted that his administration has successfully aligned the fiscal and calendar years in Kaduna state for five consecutive years.

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Speaking after signing the 2020 appropriation,  El Rufai commended the Kaduna State House of Assembly for cooperating with the executive arm of government to realise the administration’s policies and programmes.

The governor who described the present state assembly as the most productive in the history of Kaduna state said that they have passed over 80 bills into law.

El Rufai also commended the House Speaker, Rt Honourable Aminu Shagali for working across party lines to improve the fortunes of the state, adding that ‘’this is a measure of his leadership qualities.’’

It will be recalled that the Deputy Governor of Kaduna state, Dr Hadiza Balarabe had submitted the draft budget of N257.9  billion to the state assembly on 15 October 2019.

The approved N259.25bn budget sum that was signed into law on Monday has N75,145,220,027.38 recurrent expenditure and N184,105,599,706.28 is for capital expenditure.

El Rufai thanked the Deputy Governor Balarabe for working tirelessly to produce the draft budget estimates and for presenting the document to the State House of Assembly.

The governor described Dr Balarabe “as the first woman and indeed the first deputy governor to present a draft budget in the history of the country. ‘’