The Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, laid before the parliament on Thursday an N296.4bn fiscal plan for the year 2024, with capital expenditure guzzling a whopping 61% of the proposed spending and recurrent keeping the balance of 39%.
The budget is 15.5% higher than the budget of the outgoing year and has an opening balance of N25bn, according to the governor.
Just Event Online reports, AbdulRazaq also unveiled the state plan for a new minimum wage, which he said is due for negotiation next year, as well as the establishment of an 18,000-hectare Smart City Satellite Town in Ilorin, the state capital.
The budget session was presided over by the Kwara State House of Assembly Speaker Rt. Hon. Yakubu Danladi-Salihu.
AbdulRazaq said, “The next four years will serve to consolidate on the gains of our first term, expand the economic base of this lovely state through completion of ongoing infrastructural projects and commencement of new ones, make the state more self-sustaining by widening the revenue base, create more private sector-driven jobs, and better the lots of our people.
“In the new year, we will formally inaugurate our flagship projects like the garment factory, visual arts centre, Tunde Idiagbon bridge, innovation hub, sugar film factory, the two campuses of Kwara State University, shea butter factory in Kaiama, among others.
“Some other highlights include the establishment of the Kwara State University Teaching Hospital; Kwara State University of Education; completion of the first phase of the industrial park at Eiyenkorin; MSMEs Support Funds; rehabilitation of Ilesha Baruba Waterworks and others elsewhere in the state; construction of statewide rural access roads through RAAMP; rehabilitation of Isanlu Isin Waterworks and extension of pipes; rehabilitation of Pampo waterworks and extension of pipes, among others; construction of new wards.
Others include “expansion of maternity unit at civil service clinic; expansion of 13 hospitals across the state; construction of 250 housing units under the proposed mass housing scheme of the State Government; construction of CBT Centres across the 3 districts; wholesale curriculum revitalisation and training under KwaraLearn; payment of UBEC counterpart funds for 2022 and 2023; and some sports facilities statewide.
Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Danladi-Salihu in his speech commended AbdulRazaq for his performance adding that “the Governor did so well in his first term to deserve the popular mandate he got to govern the state for another four years.”
He said the legislature will peruse the budget and act.
