Gov Bala Mohammed presents over N300bn budget proposal to Bauchi Assembly

 

Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State has presented a budget proposal of N300.2 billion to the State House of Assembly for approval.

The budget, tagged budget of consolidation and renewed focus,was presented on the floor of the house on Thursday.morning.

Mohammed explained that the 2024 Budget has been predicated on the assumptions of an oil production projection of 1.78 million barrels per day; a bench mark oil price of 73.96 US dollars per barrel; an exchange rate of N700 to the US dollar.

The governor said further that the 2024 was predicated on an improved level of revenue accruals into the Federation Account arising from oil subsidy removal; and an improved and efficient system of internally generated revenue collection.

He said the state Government in the course of the preparation of the 2024 Budget taken the following measures into consideration including ensuring the completion of on-going projects and propose new projects only on the basis of critical need and the immediate impact they would make

Other measures taken while preparing the 2024 budget he disclosed, include to ensure reduction in non-essential overheads, compliance with Budget guidelines issued by the Nigerian Governors Forum, to ensure peer review and comparability.

Others included compliance with debt servicing and repayment agreements in fulfilment of our obligations and target of favourable sources of Capital Receipts and financing such as Aids and Grants, Public Private Partnership

Governor Mohammed disclosed that this year’s proposed budget comprised of Recurrent Expenditure of N121,341,193,343.11 or 40.4% while Capital Expenditure receives the sum of N178,878,512,477.49

or 59.6%.

“​The 2024 proposed Budget is 48.2% higher than the budget I presented at this House for 2023,” he recalled .

“The increase attributable to the increased revenue arising from the subsidy removal and the upward inflationary trends associated with the depreciating state of the local currency.

“This implies an increase in prices upon which our projects and programmes will be implemented.