Members of the Zamfara State House of Assembly have reviewed the state’s budget downward by N25,203,851,000.
The initial budget of N142,779,251,000, signed by the governor for the 2021 fiscal year, was cut down to N117,575,400,000 as a result of the activities of bandits, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the poor Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state.
Members of the Assembly reduced the figure on Thursday after considering the report from the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation which was saddled with the responsibility of revising the budget estimate.
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Presenting the report to the House, the acting chairman of the committee, Shamsudeen Hassan, explained that the protracted insecurity situation in the state culminated in the poor generation of revenue.
This, in addition to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to him, adversely affected the state, had a negative effect on the performance of capital expenditure which stood at 32.8 per cent, as well as a recurrent expenditure with a dismal performance of only 27.6 per cent.
In his remark, the lawmaker representing Maru North, Yusuf Kanoma, slammed the revenue-generating agencies of the government.
He stated that the School of Nursing and Midwifery was an example where more than 1,500 students admitted paid a minimum of N5,000 as registration fee.
Kanoma claimed that the institution ended up with no funds to remit to the state government.
On his part, the Speaker of the Assembly, Nasiru Magarya, commended the committee for a job well done.
He, however, faulted the Committee on Public Accounts for not carrying out a routine oversight to all revenue agencies in the state and urged them to start doing so without further delay.
Meanwhile, the House has unanimously passed the controversial bill seeking to promote children and young person’s education in the state.
The bill, which also seeks to prevent all forms of distractions during school hours, was sponsored by Kanoma.
