From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
From several of his recent engagements within and outside Kaduna State, Governor Uba Sani is seen to have plans to reduce the inherited 8.4 million poor out of about 10 million people residing in the State.
However, as beautiful and good as those plans may look, they can only be realised through constitutionally budgetary provisions.
Analysis has shown that the State Government has the intention to spend about N27.8 billion on Social Protection (SP – government’s programmes and interventions aimed at providing poverty and vulnerability) in its 2024 SUSTAIN Manifesto budget.
That amount represents 6.0 percent of the total budget of N458 billion, an increase of 64.34 percent from the N16.9 billion allocated in 2023.
According to the Head of Governance and Advocacy of the Coalition of Associations for Leadership, Peace, Empowerment & Development (CALPED), Yusuf Ishaku Goje, the breakdown of total expenditure by functional classification showed that out of this N27.8 bn, N16.2 billion went to personnel, other non-debt recurrent got N533.2 million, while N26.6 million went to debt service, and N11.0 billion to capital expenditure.
The highest capital expenditure allocation for social protection in 2024 is Social Empowerment Programme with N10.0 billion under the Ministry of Human Services and Social Development.
However, what is more important is not the budget allocation, but the cash-backed (cash handed over to executor of a specific project after the release is given on paper) performance.
For instance, in 2023, out of the N16.9 billion budgeted for social protection, only N5.3 billion was released on paper as of the 3rd quarter of that year, a 31.6 percent performance.
This is not to forget that the quarterly budget tracking report by Kaduna Social Protection Accountability Coalition (KADSPAC) showed that some of these budget releases are not cash-backed. Given the above, Goje advised Uba Sani to do more to ensure timely and adequate cash-backing of social protection-specific budget releases across the implementing Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
To him, these social protection interventions should not be allowed to be hijacked based on partisanship or primitive accumulation by the privileged because the current insecurity cannot be divorced from the high rate of poverty.
In essence, the administration of Governor Uba Sani must watch keenly to see that the right people are targeted to benefit from this year’s N27.8 billion social protection budget and ensure no one who deserves is left behind if he would walk his talk.