Yobe State governor, Ibrahim Gaidam, on Thursday presented an appropriation bill of N69.4 billion to the State House of Assembly for 2017 fiscal year.

The figure represents a fall of N19.5 billion or 22 percent over the 2016 budget which was N88.9 billion.

This shortfall, according to the governor, was as a result  of “economic recession occasioned by the fall in price of oil and consequent need to ensure budget realism for attainment of optimum result in the implementation of planned programmes.”

The governor said that the 2017 budget was tagged  “Budget of Consolidation and Self-Reliance,” and promised that his administration will involve every citizen of the state, development partners and other stakeholders in decision making towards realization of the administration’s developmental objectives.

He promised that his administration will place emphasis on due process, probity, accountability and transparency, adding that this is to lay “solid foundation for full participation of the private sector in accelerating the pace of the state’s economic growth by taking further proactive steps towards job creation as avenue to reduce poverty and unemployment in the state.”

The governor also promised to formulate “proactive and radical steps” towards increasing the IGR of the state for the attainment of economic self-reliance.

Gaidam revealed that the revenue stream for the budget include nternally generated revenue (N3.8 billion), statutory allocation (N35.4 billion), VAT (N7.4 billion), ecological fund (N2 billion), excess crude oil (N2.5 billion), grants (N3.5 billion), external loans (N490 million) and internal loans (N12.4 billion).

The breakdown showed that the economic sector has a total expenditure of N29 billion; law, peace, justice and security sector have N1.7 billion, social sector has N26.7 billion, and governance sector has N11 billion.