Sokoto State Governor, Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto, presented the 2024 budget of over N270 billion to the State House of Assembly for consideration on Friday.
Presenting the budget before the house members at the State House of Assembly complex, the governor said, “The proposed 2024 budget is tagged ‘Budget of Hope and Resilience with Infrastructural Development’ in the sum of N270,134,091,757.01 Kobo only.
“Of the proposed revenues, statutory allocations coming from the federation account are estimated at N138,929,550,974.00 naira only. Internally generated revenues are estimated at N37,085,037,053.63 Kobo only.” This makes the total revenue stand at 176,014,588,027.63 Kobo.
“Our opening balance is 13,310,358,374.60k, capital receipts aids and grants are 14,396,222,781.12k. Capital development funds also stand at 60,379,186,380.00, making a total amount of 74,775,409,168.12 Kobo.
He said the recurrent expenditure accounted for N90,640,286,421.53 Kobo only, adding that the recurrent expenditure was broken down into personnel costs, N46,923,537,990.52 Kobo only, while overhead costs stood at 50,938,232,612.65 Kobo.
“Capital estimates are 172,238,584,960.27 Kobo, with the total expenditure standing at 270,100,355,563.35 Kobo.
The governor sought the cooperation of the house in doing a good and thorough job on the budget and ensuring speedy passage to enable its implementation by January 2024.
He explained that the budget this year reflects the views of the masses across the state, based on his administration’s nine-point agenda.
The further breakdown of the budget also confirmed that Education gets the highest votes in the budget with an allocation of 42,868,402,566.5 Kobo. This is followed by the Health sector with 31,014,441,399.19 Kobo.
The Agriculture sector also gets 10,252,388,581.62 Kobo, which includes the procurement of assorted grains for the people of the state as well as the procurement of fertilizer and farm inputs, with the Ministry of Works and Transportation getting a sum of 18,807,208,595.17 Kobo.
The government also allocated a sum of 9,907,759,878.33 Kobo for the Ministry of Religious Affairs, while Water Resources gets 9,243,892,234.54 Kobo respectively.
He said his administration has also made adequate provisions in the budget for humanitarian services, poverty reduction, women, and youth empowerment programs, among others.
He commended the development partners and the civil servants for their inputs in the preparation of the 2024 budget, as well as the subsequent implementation of the policies and programs in the coming year.
Speaking in his remarks, the speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Honourable Tukur Bala, assured the governor that the assembly will get to work on the budget to encourage the governor to achieve his nine-point agenda.
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