Date: 2019-10-21

The Kwara State House of Assembly has approved N130,380,403,956 as the new revised total budget size of the State.

The approved sum by the lawmakers was against the initial N157,802,032,561, which showed a decrease of N27,421,628,605, representing 17.4 per cent.

However, the breakdown of the approved sum showed that the total revenue estimate of the 2019 budget now stands at N130,380,403,956 down from N157,802,032,561.

Also, the approved budget surplus of N43, 638,537,362 was scaled down to N27,187,810,159, a decrease of N16,450,737,203, representing 37.70 per cent.

On the capital receipts, the House revised the capital allocation to N57,117,155,413 as against N79,594,046,011, a decrease of 22,476,890,598.

This development according to THISDAY checks was sequel to the report of the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation on the Year 2019 Revised Appropriation Bill presented to the House by the Chairman of the Committee Hon Ambali Olatunji Ibrahim.

According to the Chairman of the Committee, the reduction of the budget size was necessary to enhance the state chances of benefitting maximally from the benefit derivable by the state from, "the State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability Programme for Result (SFTAS) open to all states with high/appreciable Budget implementation/performance, accountability, transparency and sustainability of their Budgets."

Meanwhile, considering the fact that there is little time left to the end of the year, a term loan of about N1.67bn was granted as against the initial N6.221bn proposed by the governor of the state, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdurazaq.

The Speaker of the House, Rt Hon Yakubu Danladi Salihu, in his remarks commended the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation for doing a thorough work on the budget review.

Salihu directed the Clerk of the House, Hajia Halimah Jummai Kperogi to forward a clean copy to the State Governor for assent.