Matawalle signs revised 2020 budget

Zamfara State Governor Bello Mohammed Matawalle on Wednesday signed the revised budget for the fiscal year 2020.

The budget was slashed from N188, 549,559,140 to N127,333, 400,000.

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Matawalle explained that the review became necessary because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic not only on the economy of the state, but of the world as a whole.

He promised to ensure that the revised and approved new budget served as a realistic guide for the progress and development of the state.

The majority leader of the state assembly, Faruku Dosara, had presented the executive bill seeking to review the 2020 budget proposal in the state.

The chairman of the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Muhammad Ahmad, said the 2020 initial budget was reduced by 20 percent.

“The capital expenditure estimate of the initial budget is N117bn and it’s now reduced to N68.3bn; while the recurrent estimate is reviewed from N71.3bn to N59.3bn.

The speaker of the state assembly, Nasiru Magarya, also attributed the review of the budget to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The bill, having passed its first and second readings, members of the house deliberated extensively in a committee of the whole and resolved to agree to the review of the budget and give the bill its third reading. We passed it into law and sent it to the executive for assent”, Magarya said.