The Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on Wednesday, laid the 2023 budget estimates before the state parliament.
At the event, the governor restated his administration’s commitment to inclusive growth.
The size of the 2023 budget is N189,436,248,054.00, with a recurrent expenditure of 49.1% and capital component of 50.9%.
Governor AbdulRazaq tagged it “budget of economic expansion and sustainable development.”
The Governor added that the fiscal document focuses on strengthening the current gains made in the state, and is built around the Kwara State Sustainable Development Plan 2021-2030, including the Medium Term Sector Strategy 2021-2023 and citizens’ needs Assessments.
“Today, I stand before this Honourable House to present the 2023 Appropriation Bill. This fiscal document is as significant in its provisions as it is in expanding the gains of the past three years for maximum socio-economic benefits of the state,” he noted.
Mr AbdulRazaq disclosed that with the support of the legislators and the good people of Kwara State, the government has delivered on key campaign promises in education, healthcare delivery, provision of potable water, agriculture, poverty reduction, gender mainstreaming, youth and women empowerment, financial inclusion, workers welfare, infrastructure, and rural urban development.
He also revealed that under the present administration, Kwara state has shed horrible indices and broken new positive grounds across development sectors which according to him, is all due to the commitment to inclusive growth.
According to him, of particular interest are the recent positive data on healthcare delivery, poverty rate, unemployment rate, and fiscal management of the state which shows that Kwara is a lot better today than the present government met it.
He also announced that government’s investment in the premier hospital has earned the state university an accreditation to begin Medicine and Surgery for the first time.
Economic Opportunities
The governor stressed that in the outgoing fiscal year, the government expanded economic opportunities for the people and executed many impactful projects and programmes across sectors, while many are near completion.
“The commencement of the KwaraLEARN initiative has raised school attendance by 43% in four pilot local government areas of Baruten, Ilorin East, Ilorin West, and Offa. We have delivered a new waterworks at Dumagi, new and well-equipped Dental, Eye, Renal, ICU facilities, and an expansive new ward” he stated.
The governor revealed that the Garment Factory, Visual Arts Centre, Innovation Hub, General Tunde Idiagbon Bridge, Osi-Obbo Aiyegunle Road, Adeta-Yebumot-AlHikmah University Road, Ilesha Gwanara Road, Osi and Ilesha Baruba Campuses of KWASU, Oro General Hospital, Jebba Waterworks, among others, are all near completion.
“For the first time, we are 90% set to deliver a game-changing Electronic Management System (EMS) for our hospitals in Ilorin, Kaiama, and Offa. We have also completed the first radio station in Kwara North and 39 Digital Literacy Centres across the state, “ he added.
He said the new budget places more emphases on continuous infrastructural development, completion of ongoing road projects, agribusinesses, irrigation and mechanisation, workers’ welfare, rural electrification, and improved water reticulation, among others. In the new year, the RAAMP road projects will begin full steam.
“So is the special agroprocessing zone that is supported by development agencies. In the new year, we will also implement the National Programme on Food Security (NPFS) and Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment, among others,” he added.
“Its key assumptions are oil price of 70 US Dollars per barrel; daily oil production estimate of 1.69m barrel per day; exchange rate of N435 to one United States Dollar; GDP growth of 3.75%; and inflation rate of 17.16%.
“Funding windows include the federal allocations, internally generated revenue (IGR), grants, and other capital receipts.”
Bridging Infrastructural Gap
In his remarks, the Speaker, Yakubu Salihu Danladi commended the Governor for his efforts to steadily bridge the huge infrastructural gap in the state and for his focus on workers’ welfare, provision of basic amenities, and prudent management of public resources.
He assured the governor of the readiness of the House to ensure timely passage of the budget after careful scrutiny as constitutionally required for the benefit of the people of Kwara State.
The Speaker said the governor deserves commendation for sustaining the zeal to fulfilling the obligations to the state by paying counterpart funds in all sectors which result of this is visible to all as the state has since gone back to light and the people of the state are now better for it.
“It is a thing of joy to note that the efforts of this present government at ensuring transparency, accountability and fiscal discipline in government business are enjoying applause from within and outside the state,” he added.
The budget presentation session was attended by the state Deputy Governor, Kayode Alabi; representative of the Chief Judge, Justice Olalekan Adegbite; Acting Grand Kadi, Justice Abdullateef Kamaldeen; House members; cabinet members led by Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Mamman Sabah Jibril; first class and other senior monarchs; top government officials and senior senior civil servants; and All Progressives Congress chieftains led by the Chairman, Prince Sunday Fagbemi; among others.
