Abubakar Bello, the governor of Niger State, has signed the over N211 billion 2022 appropriation bill into law.
Bello signed the bill at the Council Chamber of the Government House in Minna shortly before the commencement of the weekly executive council meeting on Wednesday, December 29, 2021.
The governor, who appreciated the efforts of the lawmakers in passing the bill in record time, maintained that his administration has been enjoying a cordial relationship with the Legislative arm of government.
Governor Abubakar commended the doggedness of the lawmakers in ensuring that the right thing is done always, adding that their insistence in most cases has helped his administration.
“I have seen reasons in their stubbornness sometimes and I must confess I really appreciate it because most times they are right and that is how it should be. So, when we have our differences, we come back and we reconcile,” he said.
He said his administration is poised to fund the budget completely as it is the last full budget to be implemented by the present administration, stressing that the Board of Internal Revenue is also determined to improve the state’s internally generated revenue in addition to the other sources of revenue to the state.
“On our part, we will try and see that we implement the budget but of course, it is subject to availability of funds. As we are all aware, the budget is just a statement; we hope that we are able to fund it 100%,” the governor added.
In his remarks, the Speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly, Abdullahi Bawa, said the responses from various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, MDAs, were encouraging during the budget screening process.
He, however, noted that the budget was adjusted to cater for some MDAs that were hitherto not captured properly.
The Speaker assured that the State Assembly will through its oversight functions, ensure full implementation of the budget.
Governor Abubakar had on the 4th of November, 2021 presented a budget of over N198 billion with the capital expenditure of N124 billion while recurrent expenditure was at N74 billion.
The bill was, however, passed by the State Assembly on the 22nd of December, 2021 with an increase of N13 billion.
The capital expenditure of the budget signed is N131 billion representing 62% while the recurrent budget is now N80 billion representing 38%.
