The Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, has signed into law the 2022 budget of N189.62bn, with 56 per cent allocated to capital expenditure and 44 per cent to recurrent expenditure.

The budget was passed by the state’s House of Assembly on Thursday.

The budget proposal from the executive had pegged the capital expenditure at 55.3 per cent while the recurrent stood at 44.7 per cent.

Speaking shortly after signing the budget on Friday, the governor said the budget captured workers’ promotion and the consequential adjustment component of the national minimum wage, the payment of which he said began this month.

A statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Rafiu Ajakaye, said, “Some of the highlights of the budget included the implementation of the consequential adjustment of minimum wage and paying some salary arrears that could not be paid by the previous administration.

“We are equally doing cash backing of promotions. Those are some of the major challenges for the administration. We will also focus on completing ongoing infrastructural projects, job creation and expanding the economic base of the state. We will try to ensure full implementation of the budget as much as revenue permits.

“I must commend the House for doing the needful to ensure that the budget is passed on time. We appreciate the work you have done.”

The Speaker, Kwara House of Assembly, Yakubu Salihu-Danladi, who commended the administration for its commitment to development, reaffirmed the determination of the House towards effective lawmaking in the state.

He said, “The budget was presented on the 22nd of December, 2021 and the Assembly began work immediately. We invited ministries, departments and agencies for budget defence. We scrutinised and passed the budget yesterday (Thursday).

“The budget is truly a budget of sustainable development and economic growth. The capital votes favour projects that will touch the lives of the people and reforms that would attend to decayed infrastructure. With these projects, our state will move to the next level infrastructure-wise.

“The two previous budgets passed by this Assembly show the prudence, integrity and transparency of this administration. It is our belief that the prudence and transparency that played out in the previous ones will play out with this too.”

According to him, most of the projects cut across the three senatorial districts while the recurrent expenditure also aptly caters to the people’s welfare.