Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State has presented a revised 2020 budget of N62.96billion to the state house of assembly for consideration and approval due to the effects of coronavirus on the economy.
Speaker of the House, Honourable Ibrahim Balarabe Abdullahi, said that the revised budget tagged “Budget of Inclusive Development” was necessary because coronavirus pandemic has affected the socio-economic activities of the state, the country and the world at large.
According to the speaker, in furtherance of its support to Engineer Abdullahi Sule’s administration to succeed, the House had passed the 2020 appropriation amendment bill of the sum N62.96billion into first and second reading respectively.
The speaker said, “A bill for a law to amend the Nasarawa State 2020 appropriation bill of N62,968,348, 139.00 only for the services of Nasarawa State has scaled first and second reading at the House.
“The accelerated passage was due to the importance of the budget to the development of the state as a result of COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the world.
“The recurrent expenditure is N31,943,912,285.00 billion only while the capital expenditure is N26,465,632,374.00 billion only and the consolidated revenue fund charges is N4,558,803,479.00 billion only,” he said.
The speaker committed the revised budget to the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation for its necessary action and to report back to the House on Wednesday, July 22nd.
It would be recalled that the governor had, on Dec. 4, 2019, presented a 2020 budget proposal of N100.52 billion to the lawmakers for consideration and approval.
Sule, who tagged it as “Budget of Inclusive Development”, said that it was anchored on his administration’s policy of transparency, accountability and prudence.
The state assembly subsequently passed the appropriation bill into law on Dec. 23, 2019 after raising it from N100.5 billion to N108.4 billion.