Wole Ayodele in Jalingo
In a departure from predecessor administrations, Governor Agbu Kefas of Taraba State is committed to spend over 64% of the 2024 Budget on capital expenditure.
This was disclosed at a joint briefing by the Commissioners for Information and Re-Orientation, Finance and Justice, at the end of a marathon executive council meeting where the budget proposals were ratified.
According to the Commissioner for Finance, a total sum of three hundred and eleven billion, three hundred and eighty-eight million, five hundred and twenty-five thousand, six hundred and twenty-one Naira ninety-six Kobo (N311,388,525,621.96k) would be presented to the State House of Assembly as 2024 Appropriation Bill.
Based on the budget proposals, recurrent expenditure, which used to gulp the biggest proportion of previous budgets, would only gulp 35.9% which according to the Commissioner for Finance, Barr Zainab Jalingo, is an indication of the governor’s resolve and commitment to reverse the underdevelopment of the state.
According to her “this is the first time in the history of Taraba State that 64.1% of annual budget would be voted for capital expenditure and this is a strong message by Governor Agbu Kefas to the people of the state that he’s determined to reverse the underdevelopment that has characterized the state.”
Besides that, five key areas that represents the five fingers of development enunciated by the governor has been prioritized. These are Education, Health, Security and Agriculture as well as Infrastructure.
She further revealed that unlike previous years, the 2024 budget would be financed significantly with internally generated revenue which is expected to rise by over 400% in the coming year.
She expressed the commitment of Governor Kefas to ensuring large scale investments in education in his bid to revamp the educational sector particularly addressing the frightening number of out-of-school children in the state.
