GOVERNOR Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has presented his 2019 budget proposal, totalling N155.86 billion, to the State’s House of Assembly.

Of that amount, N62.3 billion was set aside for recurrent expenditure while N93.5 billion was allocated for capital expenditure. This represents 40 per cent of the budget estimate for recurrent and 60 per cent for capital expenditure.

Since assuming office in 2015, El-Rufai has consistently maintained a January to December budget system, ensuring that the budget of a successive year was presented and passed before the commencement of that year.

The budget for 2016 was presented in October 2015, those of 2017 and 2018 were also presented to the state assembly for consideration in the October of the preceding years.

Presenting the draft proposal before the state’s lawmakers on Wednesday, El-Rufai said the document has been ready since July, but following the resolution reached during one of the state executive council meetings, the document was made available online so that citizens could download, study and make their inputs. Also, a town hall meeting was held to enable a more inclusive citizen participation.

According to El-Rufai, the multi-year budget which covers from 2019 t0 2021 ” is hinged on the 2016 Zero-Based Budget principles and is tailored towards the actualisation of our State Development Plan 2016-2020 “.

“Macroeconomic indicators show an uptick in global growth at 3.8 per cent and gradual recovery on the national front from the recession and a reduction in the inflation rate. As a Sub-National Government with no control over monetary policy, the state budget is our key fiscal policy tool to insulate our economy from unforeseen negative shocks,” El-Rufai said in his address to the lawmakers.

“The budget is also our most important mechanism towards achieving our State Development Plan 2016-2020. It is therefore critical for the state to have a realistic and implementable Budget.

“The 2019 budget keeps faith with our commitment to human capital development through investments in the social sector, which takes 42.8 per cent of the budget. Social sector spending is mainly on Education which is allocated 27.15 per cent and Health on which we propose to spend 15.02 per cent.”