Gombe Assembly passes 2022 appropriation bill of N154.96bn

The Gombe State House of Assembly (GSHA) has approved a N154.96 billion appropriation bill for 2022, an increase of N353.35 million over the initial N154.61 billion proposed by Gov. Inuwa Yahaya.

Mr Abubakar Umar, GSHA Information Officer, announced this in a statement signed and made accessible to newsmen on Tuesday in Gombe.

According to the statement, Alhaja Aliyu Baba-Manu, Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, stated that the budget estimate was derived from the Gombe State Development Plan (DEVAGOM) 2021-2030.

According to Baba-manu, the estimate included a capital expenditure of N83.49 billion (53.9%) and a recurrent expenditure of N71.47 billion (46.1%).

He stated that the bill, which had an opening balance of N6 billion, would be funded by recurrent and capital receipts of N161.49 billion, with a deficit financed by internal and external borrowings of N56.80 billion, leaving a closing balance of N4.44 billion.

Baba-Manu stated that the economic sector received the highest allocation of N57.19 billion, representing 68.6 percent of total capital expenditure, followed by the social sector, which received N19.31 billion, representing 23 percent.

Administrative, Law, and Justice Sectors accounted for N4.37 billion, or 5.2 percent, and N2.60 billion, or 3.1%, respectively.

After reviewing the budget proposal, he stated that the House approved the size and sectoral allocations of the 2022 budget, as well as all virements made in the 2021 budget as recommended by the Appropriations Committee.

Shortly after the bill’s passage, Speaker Abubakar Mohammed praised the Appropriation Committee for presenting an articulate report that guided the House in making informed decisions in a short period of time.

He congratulated Yahaya on a successful implementation of the 2021 budget and proposed a people-oriented 2022 budget with a capital to recurrent expenditure ratio of 53.9 percent to 44.1 percent, taking into account macroeconomic indices.

Mohammed urged the Executive to ensure that the estimate approved by the House is carried out effectively.

The Speaker urged the House Standing Committees to be diligent in their oversight function over MDAs under their purview in order to achieve commendable performance in Budget implementation.