Gov Yahaya of Gombe presents N154.6 billion budget for 2022

Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State on Thursday presented a N154.61 billion appropriation bill for the 2022 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly.

Presenting the proposed appropriation tagged: “Budget of Consolidation,” Mr Yahaya said his administration intended to consolidate on the gains made over the past two and half years in the service to the people.

He said the proposed budget comprised N69.11 billion recurrent expenditure and N85.49 capital expenditure.

According to him, the proposed recurrent expenditure represented 44.7 per cent of the total budget size while the capital expenditure is 55.3 per cent of the budget.

He said that the budget was expected to be financed by an estimated recurrent revenue of N73.63 billion and the capital receipts of N79.86 billion.

The governor said his administration had developed and launched the maiden Gombe State 10-year Development Plan (DEVAGOM), adding that the 2022 proposed budget draws heavily on the aspirations of this development agenda.

He said the development agenda was initiated on five strategic pillars of governance and administration; social, economic and infrastructural development as well as sustainable environment.

On revenue generation, Mr Yahaya said in view of the challenges in the global oil market and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world economy, there was the need to “look inward and improve our internal revenue drive.”

“It is in this regards that our administration has put in place several initiatives towards boosting internal revenue generation.”

He listed some of the actions to include repositioning of the Internal Revenue Service, identification of new revenue sources, advocacy and sensitisation of the populace to imbibe tax payment culture.

Speaking further on the performance of the 2021 budget, the governor said the overall performance as at September 30 was 68.5 per cent.

In his remarks, the Speaker, Abubakar Luggerewo, assured that the budget would be speedily and properly scrutinised towards ensuring good governance in the state.

(NAN)