Katsina

Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State has signed the state’s 2022 budget of N323.2 billion into law, following its passage by the state assembly on Tuesday.

The governor gave assent to the budget shortly after the Speaker of the state assembly, Alhaji Tasi’u Maigari, presented the document to him at the government house on Wednesday.

Masari had on Nov. 17 presented the 2022 appropriation bill of N340.9 billion, tagged, “Budget of Economic Resilience,” before the legislative.

The governor said that the budget, which was reduced by N15 billion by the lawmakers, would focus on the completion of all ongoing projects across the state.

“This particular budget is significant to us as a government and as a political party because this will be the last full year budget of this administration.

“That is why it is very important and significant to us, especially in terms of implementing what is in this budget.

“And we must have discipline in terms of implementation of this budget, because it is directed towards completing all the jobs we have started. Very few new jobs were added to this budget.” Masari said.

He expressed appreciation to the lawmakers for the passage of the budget within 35 days to enable its implementation cycle to run from January to December.

Masari further urged the lawmakers to make valuable inputs to governance by carrying out oversights of ministries, departments and agencies in the state.

Earlier, Maigari said that the lawmakers received inputs from Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), constituents and members of the public before passing the budget.

According to him, the budget passed has N223.1 billion earmarked for capital expenditure, representing 68 per cent of the entire budget, while recurrent expenditure was N100.1 billion, representing 32 per cent.

“If you could recall, the governor had earlier presented over N 340.9 billion as the proposed estimate, with over N102.8 as recurrent expenditure, while the capital expenditure was over N238.1 billion,” he said.