The Kaduna State government said it has empowered the private sector with contracts worth N108 billion from the 2016 budget, adding that the state was putting finishing touches to its 2017 appropriation bill, which governor Nasir El-Rufai is expected to present to the State House of Assembly by the end of September.

This was made known on Tuesday by the state Commissioner for Budget and Planning,  Muhammad Abdullahi.

“We have received budget proposals from Ministries Department and Agencies and we have held revenue defence about three weeks ago on the budget.

“What this means is, we already have a revenue budget for the proposed budget.

“All revenue generating agencies in the state have defended what they proposed as revenues,” Abdullahi told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN.

He said the state government is working out an estimate of what in hopes to get from the federation account in 2017, adding that government agencies will be expected to begin the defence of their expenditure from next week.

The commissioner also stressed the important role the private sector will play, saying the sector has an important role to play if the state is to witness significant development.

“We are inviting key businessmen all across the state to tell us what they will like to see in the budget; what items in the budget they think would improve their businesses.

“This is because government exists to ensure that the state works and provide jobs, and we can only provide jobs when the privates sector is gainfully engaged,” Abdullahi explained.

Due to the shortfall in revenue, especially owing to the fall in oil prices, the Kaduna State government said it cannot meet its target of 95 percent implementation of the 2016 budget. It said, however, said it is expecting 70 percent implementation, which is more than what has been achieved in 10 years.

Part of this is the release of more than N100 billion to private sector from the capital budget.

“The state government is empowering the private sector with N108 billion worth of contracts, representing 62 percent of the N172 billion provision in the 2016 budget as capital expenditure,” he noted, adding that in the next two weeks, the government will award contracts for the constructions of 16 roads and 100 boreholes in rural communities.

‘’Similarly, we are about to award a contract for the construction of 255 primary health care hospitals across the state and we just closed a tender for 150 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) projects,“ he said.