Bauchi State Government has expressed satisfaction with the performance of its annual budget since 2019 when the present PDP-led administration of Sen Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir assumed office.
The assertion was made by the Commissioner of Budget, Economic Planning, and Multilateral Coordination, Aminu Hammayo while briefing Journalists after a special State Executive Council meeting held at the Government House on Thursday.
Aminu Hammayo also said that budget implementation performance is a key to measuring the political will and commitment of the government towards provision of basic amenities to the citizens.
He added that the implementation of the budget from 2019 to 2023 has increased drastically with over 80% performance, adding that it is a requirement of the Nigerian Governors Forum for proper financial planning and implementation.
The Commissioner further said that the performance of the state budget for 2023 rose from 86 to 88 percent in both capital and recurrent expenditures.
Aminu Hammayo said that the Council discussed extensively the performance of the administration in the implementation of the 2023 budget and discovered that it was a very huge success in terms of the full implementation.
According to him, “In 2019 when this administration came on board, the performance indicator was slightly above 40 percent but now, in 2023, we are talking about 88 percent implementation of capital expenditure. This is a very significant development which is good for democracy.”
He said that the internally generated revenue of the state has significantly improved thereby enabling it to be to embark on people-oriented developmental projects and programmes.
He stressed, “The administration is investing in infrastructural development especially in roads with specific attention on rural roads to open up the areas. This is a requirement for economic development.”
The Commissioner stressed that road infrastructure will boost transportation from one point to the other with ease a situation that will increase revenue generation for those in the transport business.
Aminu Hammayo explained that infrastructural development will always lead to human resource development saying that,” with the opening of the rural areas through the roads, the farmer will be able to take his farm produce to the market for sale thereby boosting economic growth.”
He however assured that though the government is taking loans to execute the projects, such loans will never be a burden to next administration considering the fact that the conditions are flexible and easy to service.
The Commissioner expressed confidence that the performance of the 2024 budget will be better than that of 2023 considering the fact that, “It is just second month of the year and you witness to the number of road projects that have been flagged off by the Administration.“