Borno Gov signs N181bn 2018 budget into law

Gov. Kashim Shettima of Borno on Wednesday signed into law the N181 billion Appropriation Bill for 2018 tagged “Budget of Resettlement and Empowerment”, passed by the state House of Assembly.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Shettima, had on December 27, presented N170.2 billion Appropriation Bill to the State House of Assembly for approval.

The House, however, increased the budget size to N181 billion.

Shettima said his administration would expedite action on the implementation of the budget to address humanitarian, social and economic challenges facing the state.

The governor lauded the House over the speedy passage of the bill and commended the military over the successes recorded in the counter-insurgency campaign.

Earlier, the Speaker, Alhaji Abdulkareem Lawal, said that the increment in the budget was necessary to fast track implementation of rehabilitation and resettlement programmes as well as poverty alleviation.

“The House, based on recommendations of its ad-hoc committees and Committee on Appropriation, presented a N181, 288, 514 billion for 2018 appropriation.

The total increase is N11, 514 billion.

“This increment came under the Ministries of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement; Poverty Alleviation and Empowerment; Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.

“This is necessary to facilitate construction of Dikwa-Ngala-Kalabalge Road which is one of our priority projects in 2018, but we observed that only N400 million was allocated to the project,” he said.

The budget would be financed from projected Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of N16, 075, 548 billion, allocation from the Federation Account of N115, 734, 194 billion and Capital Receipt of N38, 469, 772 billion.