Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state has signed the 2018 budget of N216.55 billion into law, with a promise to complete all ongoing projects and initiating new ones.
The document, tagged “Budget of Consolidation”, is made up of N85.44 billion in recurrent expenditure and N131.1billion in capital expenditure.
While signing the Appropriation Bill into law on Monday at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim Government House, Kaduna, the governor said the largest chunk of N51.4bn of the budget will be spent on the social sector, comprising education, health and social development, in line with the restoration programme of his administration.
According to him, the appropriation is consistent with his administration’s restoration agenda to spend more on the people than on running the government.
He said the government must shed weight by cutting down unnecessary expenses and blocking financial leakages in order to effectively implement the budget.
The governor had earlier on October 12, presented the budget to the State House of Assembly for approval.
With the signing of the appropriation bill into law, El-Rufai said the next financial year will start from January 1st, 2018, thereby making Kaduna the first among the 36 states of the Federation to pass the 2018 budget into law.
