2021: Minimum wage, education, youths empowerment top Kwara’s N123bn budget


Kwara state governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq Tuesday presented a budget proposal of N123,091,307,468 to the House of Assembly . The proposal contains provisions for payment of the minimum wage once the government reaches a deal with the labour as well as affecting promotion for different cadres of the civil service, AbdulRazaq told lawmakers in a summary of the budget speech.  The governor described the fiscal document as a product of wide consultations with the electorate and designed to reflect current economic challenges.  The budget is 54% recurrent expenditure and 46% capital expenditure, a fallout of the dwindling revenue from oil and internally generated.  

However, AbdulRazaq hinted at the possibility of the administration taking a bond to finance key infrastructural projects later in the year. Education gulps a huge chunk of 25.5% of the budget proposal, an improvement from last year, followed by health which grabs 13.7%. Economic affairs — a category that includes road construction and other infrastructural projects — is also taking another 25.7%, 
The general public service, a budget subhead that deals with the civil service, gets 26.5 of the votes, according to the budget speech now available on the government’s website. 

 The state budget is predicated on the same key parameters and fiscal assumptions as the national budget recently presented by President Muhammadu Buhari. “The 2021 fiscal plan is built on the modest successes of the outgoing year, with strategic emphasis on reforms and inclusive growth. However, its fundamentals are dictated by the global economic realities, low revenue projections, and a need to prioritise basic needs of the people as we recover from the devastating effects of COVID-19. I will therefore be laying before you a budget estimate of N123,091,307,468. That is 7.35% bigger than the revised 2020 budget,” he told the parliament. “Our priorities in the new fiscal year would include payment of the new minimum wage, cash-backed promotion for workers who passed the recent examination, tech-driven reforms in the education sector through our Kwaralearn initiative, social security for the vulnerable, cottage industries, rehabilitation of sporting facilities, and investments in the ideas of our youths through Kwapreneur.

Ongoing and new infrastructure projects such as the Innovation Hub, Visual Arts Centre, courtrooms and school rehabilitation, and upgrading of health facilities will also be funded.  “And nearly two years into the new administration, we have made provisions for purchase of vehicles for political office holders within reasonable limits,” he added. Speaker Salihu Yakubu-Danladi commended the administration for the faithful implementation of the 2020 budget and commendable infrastructural strides despite the outbreak of the pandemic.


He said the lawmakers would discharge their duties to scrutinise the document and ensure it passes relevant thresholds of participatory democracy and good governance. 

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