What the states are promising

What the states are promising By Pita Ochai The 2014 fiscal year looks promising for indigenes and residents of the various states of the federation going by the remarkable budget estimates by the state governors. The budgets proposed by different governors differ but they all seem to have a common goal of providing and improving infrastructure, creating an enabling environment for investors as well as fighting poverty and unemployment. The presentation of the appropriation bill to the State Houses of Assembly began in various states in the last quarter of 2013. While some of the State Houses of Assembly are still working on their budgets, others have successfully passed theirs into law for early implementation by the executive. In Lagos State, Governor Babatunde Fashola proposed a budget of N489.69 billion to the House of Assembly. The budget is a N10 billion reduction from the N499.604 billion budgeted for the 2013 fiscal year. In the proposed budget, the government earmarked N234.665 billion for recurrent expenditure and N255.025 billion for capital expenditure. In terms of sectoral allocations, General Public Service will get N100.215 billion; Public Order & Safety, N17.977 billion; Economic Affairs, N160.046 billion; Environmental Protection, N39.727 billion; Housing and Community Amenities, N50.537 billion; Health, N37.8 billion; Recreation, Culture and Religion, N3.482 billion; Education, N77.423 billion and Social Protection N2.466 billion. According to Fashola, “total Personnel Cost/Total Revenue of 19 percent; Total Personnel Cost/Internally Generated Revenue of 27 percent, and Personnel Cost as percentage of Recurrent Expenditure of 37 percent anchored on a zero deficit financing requirement.” In Osun State, the 2014 budget was prepared in line with the six points Integral Action Plan of Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration. The budget estimate for the fiscal year is N216 billion. It is christened “Budget of Growth Enhancement and Development”. A breakdown of the budget shows that N17,969,297,750 is earmarked for over head cost of the government, the consolidated cost is N52,493,953,200, while the total recurrent expenditure is estimated to be N97,608,280,660 and capital expenditure is N119,136,932,600. Oyo State government christened its 2014 budget estimate of N188.9 billion as “Budget of Consolidation”. According to Governor Abiola Ajimobi, the recurrent expenditure is N96.041 billion (50.9 per cent) and capital expenditure N92.795 billion (49.1 per cent). Sectoral allocations are as follows: Economic, N36,192,500,000 (39.01 percent); Social Services, N25,680,000,000 (27.67 per cent); Urban Regional Development, N17,741,600,000 (19.12 per cent) and General Administration N13,180,916,000. Physical infrastructure, economic and social services sectors gulp about 82.25 percent of the budget. Ajimobi said that the reason for the large chunk of allocation to these three sectors underscores his administration’s determination to empower the people. Besides mobilising resources and support through the Private Public Partnership, (PPP) framework for the execution of some projects, Ajimobi said his administration was working on “strategic alliances” with development partners. According to him, his administration has made significant improvements in governance, peace and security, health services, wealth creation and empowerment, environment and habitat, infrastructure, staff development and welfare. On education, he said three model secondary schools and four model primary schools would be built across the state, adding that school monitoring would be intensified. Ajimobi said new strategies would be adopted to improve Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to reduce dependency on Federal Allocation. On its part, the Abia State government proposed a budget of N149.6 billion for its services in the 2014 fiscal year. According to the budget, capital projects for this year are expected to gulp N87.5 billion while recurrent expenditure was allocated N62 billion. Governor Theodore Orji hopes to get annual recurrent revenue of N120 billion and N21.5 billion from donor agencies. The budget tagged: “Budget of Legacy Consolidation” focuses on the acceleration of building human and physical infrastructure for job creation and the eradication of poverty in the state. “We expect to achieve this through scaling up of our expenditures in education, healthcare, agriculture, water resources, environment, housing and support for women and youth empowerment programmes,” the governor said. For its 2014 fiscal year, the Ebonyi State government is set to spend N99 billion. The budget estimate has a marginal reduction of 4.45 percent when compared to N104 billion budgeted for 2013. According to Governor Martin Elechi, this year’s budget adopted the International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS) in compliance with the Federal Government directive to all the 36 states, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The budget titled: “Budget of Stabilisation,” according to the governor, aims at enabling the government to consolidate on the aggressive infrastructural network it embarked upon since 2007. In the budget breakdown, N41 billion, representing 41 percent, is appropriated for recurrent expenditure, N54 billion, representing 54 percent, is appropriated for the capital expenditure. The Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, defied the political crisis in the State House of Assembly and threats from political foes to present the state’s budget proposal of N485.524 billion to the Assembly at the old auditorium within the Government House, Port Harcourt. According to Amaechi, the 2014 budget estimate is N4.79 billion which is 0.98 percent lower than the 2013 budget, which was N490.32 billion. A breakdown of the proposed budget, which the governor said would focus on the completion of ongoing projects in about eight key sectors, shows that N247.573 billion is allocated for capital expenditure while N237.950 is for recurrent expenditure. “This is N4.797 billion (0.98 percent) lower than the 2013 budget of N490.320 billion. The focus of the budget will be on completing ongoing projects in Health, Education, Roads, Transport, Power, Water and Agriculture and other critical infrastructure. Capital and Recurrent provisions are N247.573 billion and N237.950 billion respectively. Our Capital to Recurrent ratio is 76:24 for the financial year 2014 as against 70:30 achieved as at September, in this outgoing year,” the governor had said at the presentation of the budget late last year. According to him, the 2014 budget would be funded by FAAC allocation of N241.243 billion and Internally Generated Revenue, (IGR) of N92.420 billion; prior year balance of N10.717 billion; proposed loans ofN100 billion; credit from World Bank — N6.983 billion; European Union grant of N0.660 billion; and sale of assets of N33 billion. The sectoral allocations show that the Ministry of Works got the highest with N60 billion budgeted for its activities; Education, N30 billion; Greater Port Harcourt City Authority N20 billion; Office of the Secretary to the Government N11 billion; Rivers State Sustainable Agency N10 billion; and Transport N10 billion. Others are Sports N8 billion; Water Resources N8 billion; Power N7 billion; Water Resources Management Agency N6.5 billion; Rivers State House of Assembly N6.1 billion. In a N469.3 billion budget proposed for the 2014 fiscal year by Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, N130.85 billion (43 percent) of the total revenue is earmarked for economic development. Akpabio said that projects and programmes under the economic sector would include activities of the Ministries of Works, Finance, Agriculture, Commerce and Industries, Science and Technology. According to him, the 2014 budget tagged “Budget of Actualisation” is based on the principles of International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS). The state’s 2014 budget proposal is N129.81 billion less than the revised Akwa Ibom Appropriation Law of N599.18 billion in 2013. A breakdown of the budget shows that General Administration gets N93.2 billion or 30.7 per cent of the budget proposal, while N69.19 billion or 22 per cent of the budget is earmarked for the social sector. The Justice and Law sector is to receive N6.06 billion or two per cent of the budget proposal, while the regional sector is allocated N4.5 billion or 1.5 per cent of the total budget. Akpabio identified oil revenue derivation fund account for N307.72 billion as the highest source of revenue for this year’s budget while N42 billion will accrue from statutory allocation. Others are N29.6 billion projected as the state’s internally generated revenue, N20 billion from SURE-P fund savings, N14 billion from value added tax and N3.5 billion retained revenue from parastatals. The Benue State government plans to spend N105.1 billion for the 2014 fiscal year. Out of the amount, N41.6 billion is for capital expenditure, N37.1 billion for personnel costs, while N26.3 billion is for overhead costs. The budget proposal is N31.3billion less than the N136.4 billion budgeted for 2013. Governor Gabriel Suswam said that his administration proposed a realistic budget for 2014 since it is the only full year budget before the expiration of his tenure in May 2015. Christened “Budget of Growth, Revitalization and Transformation”, the governor said the 2014 budget would focus on completion of on-going projects across the state. He assured the people that efforts would be made to improve on the state’s internally generated revenue, which stood at about N6billion in the 2013 fiscal year. Under the SURE-P job programme, Suswan said 2,000 jobs will be created for unemployed graduates in the civil service, to earn N20,000 each per month; 500 jobs for nurses and other medical personnel for the health sector, 500 jobs each for teachers while environmental sanitation will have 2,500 jobs and skills acquisition will attract 2,000 jobs, all of which will be placed on a monthly stipend of N10,000 each. The Kwara State government earmarked N124 billion budget for the state in the 2014 fiscal year. Tagged “Budget of Expansion for Inclusive Prosperity”, the 2014 budget has an increase of N27 billion, (28.46 percent) over that of 2013. According to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, “the 2014 budget is therefore a blueprint for sustaining on-going development and birthing major new projects to put more money in people’s pocket, get more youths into work, remodel additional hospitals, build more schools and roads thus opening new vistas of economic prosperity.” This year’s budget proposal has a recurrent expenditure of N48, 542, 484,272, about 39 percent of the budget while the capital expenditure outlay is expected to be N58,700,358,608, about 47 percent of the total budget. N17,278,150,233 (14 percent) of the proposed budget is expected to be spent on public debt servicing. The state government will create 3,500 new jobs and midwife 2000 new youth entrepreneurs through training and access to N200million in affordable revolving credit in the first quarter. Governor Jonah David Jang of Plateau State made a budget proposal of N228.7 billion for the 2014 fiscal year tagged: “Budget of Continuity and Inclusive Growth IV”. The proposal is made up of N81.6 billion as recurrent expenditure and N147 billion as capital expenditure. According to Jang, the focus of the budget is on completion of ongoing projects and the consolidation of the gains made in the implementation of his administration’s 10-point agenda. Over N37 billion is earmarked for works which the governor said would be used to complete both new and on-going roads and bridges across the state. Katsina State Governor Ibrahim Shehu Shema presented a budget estimate of N113.6 billion for the 2014 fiscal year. The budget consists of a capital expenditure of N81.1 billion or 74.4 percent of the total budget, while N34.4 billion or 28.5 percent of the total budget goes to recurrent expenditure. In Nasarawa State, Governor Umaru Al-Makura presented the 2014 Appropriation Bill of N114.5 billion to the state House of Assembly for consideration and approval. The 2014 budget estimate surpasses the 2013 budget of N110 billion by about N4.3 billion, representing 3.99 per cent increase. The breakdown of the figures shows that the 2014 budget will be funded from anticipated revenue sources made up of opening balance/savings transferred from consolidated revenue funds to Capital Development Fund of N10.5 billion. Others are value-added tax of N10 billion, statutory revenue allocation of N40 billion, excess crude oil receipts of N5 billion, SURE-P of N2.5 billion, refund from NNPC of N10.3 billion. The budget will also be funded from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), of N13.174 billion, Aids and Grant of N13 billion, and bonds of N10 billion. In the budget estimate, N59.6 billion, representing 52.03 per cent of the budget, is earmarked for recurrent expenditure; while 54.9 billion, representing 47.9 per cent, is set aside for capital expenditure. A review of the sectoral allocations shows that the Legislature gets N15.37 billion, Civil Service Matters N1.10 billion, Agriculture and Water Resources N10.19 billion, Environment and Natural Resources, N706.71 million. Works, Housing and Transport will gulp N10.10 billion; Commerce and Industry N3.51 billion; Rural and Community Development, N3.12 billion; Lands and Urban Development N11.42 billion, while Finance, Planning and Investment will take N15.90 billion. The state Ministry of Justice recieved N336.8 million, Education N12.05 billion, Higher Education N9.31 billion, Health N12.19 billion, Sports and Youth Development N1.77 billion, and Women and Social Development N548.16 million. Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State has proposed N178.5 billion appropriation bill to the Borno State House of Assembly for approval. Tagged “Budget of Consolidation and Progress”, the proposed budget comprise N56.7 billion for funding overheads while N121.8 billion is earmarked for capital expenditure. The budget is expected to be financed from the statutory allocation of N139.9 billion and internally generated revenue of N30.8 billion. A breakdown of the proposed budget indicates that the Ministry of Works and Transport gets the highest allocation of N20.6 billion, followed by the Ministry of Health and Higher Education with N15.4 billion and N14.5 billion respectively. In Gombe State, Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo proposed about N107.4 billion in the 2014 fiscal year. In this year’s budget tagged “Budget of Restoration”, N43.5 billion is earmarked for recurrent expenditure while N63.8 billion is for capital expenses. According to Dankwambo, the budget is based on an estimated recurrent revenue of N50.8 billion and capital receipts of N55.8 billion, with an anticipated budget deficit of N678 million. Based on the budget breakdown, the recurrent revenue comprises N6.3 billion as internally generated revenue; N35 billion from statutory allocation and N2.5 billion share of excess crude oil. A receipt of N1 billion each from its share of exchange rate gains and Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) is expected by the state in the fiscal year, while N5 billion is expected from budget augmentation and other sources. Out of the recurrent expenditure of N43.5 billion, N14.6 billion is for personnel cost, N16.3 billion on overhead and N12.5 billion for consolidated revenue fund charges. On the capital receipts of N55.8 billion, there is an opening balance of N8 billion, government is expecting N7 billion from Value Added Tax (VAT) and N2.5 billion as Federal Government’s reimbursement on projects executed by the state. In addition, the government will get N2.5 billion from the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) as the state’s share. Other capital receipts are; an expected N3 billion local government contribution to joint projects, N7.3 billion as transfer to consolidated revenue fund charges and N4 billion as internal loans. Other sources of receipts are N500 million from partnership contribution to Agricultural Development Fund and N250 million partnership contribution to Trade Investment Fund. About N300 million is also expected as partnership contribution to Gombe State Geographic Information System (GOGIS). Also expected is the N500 million from Bank of Industry (BOI), partnership for entrepreneurship development fund. The African Development Bank (AfDB) is to provide N50 million loan to the state. The Islamic Development Bank would also provide N40 million loan for food security project in the state. On the N63.8 billion capital expenditure, the economic sector is allocated N43 billion, representing 67 per cent of the budget while the social sector gets N16.6 billion (26 per cent). The Regional Development Sector gets N43 million, representing 0.07 per cent of the budget while General Administration takes N3.5 billion, representing 6 per cent of the budget.

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