Kaduna State Government said it will harness untapped areas to focus more on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) locally to finance its projects.
Addressing journalists on the highlights of the proposed draft budget for 2024-2026 presented by Gov. Uba Sani, the State Commissioner for Planning and Budget Commission, Mr Mukhtar Ahmed, said the state government has set up a committee to look at the state local revenue.
He said the idea was to continue with close monitoring and get untapped revenues in the state .
Ahmed said, ”Mining is an area that we have not been looking in the past ,to ensure all the miners if they get the product and sell the state gets its percentage.
“We are to coordinate the activities of all the revenue generating agencies in the state to look at the untapped areas. If you don’t have IGR, you cannot fund projects, so, we are focusing on IGR.
“If you look at the overhead and personnel costs, they are over N140 billion and if you look at our target, It is N120 billion locally to finance that ,so, we have to put emphasis on IGR.”
The commissioner gave some highlights on the budget presented by Sani, which was tagged” Budget For Rural Transformation for Inclusive Development”.
Ahmed explained that Sani’s seven-point agenda targeeds rural transformation and development, adding
“It is not going to look at the infrastructural development alone , but also areas of education and health with emphasis on agriculture.”
He said that 40 per cent of the budget was earmarked for education and health, adding that
25 per cent is going into the agricultural sector, which in previous years had not received such allocation..
The commissioner said that the health sector took 15 per cent while education got 25 per cent, adding that, public works is another big spender in the budget, including the rural infrastructure, which will be under the public works.
Ahmed said that N10billion would go into social investment to support the poor and the vulnerable for financial inclusion.
” People will be captured in the social register in the first one year and in the second year, 1500 people will also be captured to make it 2.5million two years, “he said.
According to him, they will have bank accounts and cash will be transferred to them to alleviate their suffering due to the fuel subsidy removal.
Ahmed said that the state government was also committing about N2.4billion for pensioners and about N6billion for gratuity
“All the sectors of the economy related to the governor’s agenda are going to receive funding to fulfil all his campaign promises, ”he said.
The commissioner also said that in the budget, Sani has also approved the salary increments for medical doctors in the state.
