Richard Elesho/ Lokoja
Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello has presented a budget proposal of N130.5 billion as against N122.9 billion of the Amended Budget for year 2020 as the 2021 budget to the Kogi State House of Assembly. The presentation was made on Tuesday in Lokoja.
The total Budget package for the expected year represents an increase of N7.5billion or 6.16% when compared with the 2020 final Budget.
During the budget presentation, the Governor stated that the fiscal strategy of Government was anchored on the on-going Public Financial Management Reform (PFM).
In summary, the Governor disclosed that the draft Revenue Budget has an estimated outlay of N130,546,068,026. This total Budget outlay is divided into Recurrent Revenue of N82,464,412,854 representing 63.17% and Capital Receipts of N48,081,655,172 representing 36.83%.
On the objectives and target of the 2021 budget, Governor Bello said The specific fiscal objectives of Kogi State is effective allocation of scarce resources to identified critical programmes and projects.
He listed some major areas of targets:
a. To improve the quality and affordability of education available to citizens at all levels in order to produce the articulate and skilled manpower required for economic transformation of the State; b. To improve quality and access to healthcare leading to improvement in efficiency of the healthcare delivery system; c. To ensure food security and generate a high proportion of the GDP from agriculture.
Other areas of focus according to Bello are agriculture, youth empowerment, debt reduction and infrastructure development.