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Frowns at late presentation of budget by the executive
By John Adams, Minna
Barely four days after Niger State Governor Rt Hon Umaru Mohammed Bago presented the 2025 appropriation estimate to the State House of Assembly for consideration, the House has approved the budget estimate of N1.558 billion for the year 2025.
This follows the submission of the report by the eight-member House Committee on Planning and Appropriation on the 2025 budget, headed by the member representing Rafi State Constituency, Hon Zubairu Ismaila Zana, during the House plenary on Thursday.
It could be recalled that the governor had, on Monday, presented a budget estimate of N1,558,887,565,358.00 trillion to the State House of Assembly for the 2025 fiscal year.
According to the governor, this figure is higher than the N805.6 billion for the 2024 appropriation, representing a 48.32 percent increase.
The 2025 estimate comprises N196,335,361,443.00 billion (13 percent) allocated for recurrent expenditure and N1,362,552,203,915.00 trillion (87 percent) allocated for capital expenditure.
The governor noted that the budget would be funded through:
- Statutory allocation of N53,400,000,000.00
- Value Added Tax (VAT) of N85,300,555,454.00
- Other Federation Allocation Account (FAAC) receipts of N236,900,000,000.00
- Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of N63,360,000,000.00, including other IGR of N186,368,241,948.00
- Capital receipts of N933,558,767,956.00
This brings the total budget size to N1,558,887,565,358.00.
Committee Adjustments
While submitting the Appropriation Committee report, the chairman told the House that adjustments were made to the budget based on observations, but these did not affect the budget size.
For instance, the committee observed that “the provision of the capital head of N1,920,000,000 for the legislature is grossly inadequate,” and therefore recommended that N1,196,097,350 be moved from Special Project/Stabilisation to bring the total to N3,116,097,350 for capital expenditure for the legislature.
The committee also noted that “the proposed recurrent expenditure of the legislature is inadequate” and recommended that N793,704,715.56 be moved from the State Pension and Gratuity Statutory allocation to the N2,753,295,284.44 already provided, bringing the total recurrent expenditure for the legislature to N3,547,000,000.00.
Following these adjustments, the revised allocations were as follows:
- Recurrent expenditure: N199,235,361,443.00, comprising:
- Personnel costs: N72,276,458,552.00
- Overhead costs: N53,986,010,146.00
- Consolidated revenue: N72,952,892,754.00
- Capital expenditure: N1,359,652,203,915.00, comprising:
- Administrative costs: N27,977,297,352.00
- Economic sector: N1,103,239,447,039.98
- Law and justice: N3,508,500,000.00
- Social sector: N224,926,959,923.00
Concerns Over Late Submission
The committee expressed displeasure at the late submission of the 2025 budget to the House, which, according to the chairman, “resulted in hasty scrutiny and passage.”
“It is therefore recommended that the executive arm ensures that the budget is laid before the legislature at least three months before the end of the year to allow for proper scrutiny and timely passage,” the chairman stated.