Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has presented the 2022 draft budget of N233 billion to Kaduna State House of Assembly, with a capital expenditure of N146 billion and recurrent spending of N87.6 billion.
Giving a further breakdown of the N233billion budget estimate, the governor disclosed that it has a capital to recurrent ratio of 63% : 37%.
El Rufai noted that the 2022 estimates are slightly smaller than the 2021 budget of N237.52bn, which had N157.56bn as capital and N79.96bn recurrent expenditure, a 66% to 34% capital to recurrent ratio.
He further said that the priorities of the 2022 estimates are on Education, Healthcare and Infrastructure, like previous budgets.
Speaking during the presentation of the draft budget on Tuesday, El Rufai pointed out that the allocations in the 2022 budget estimates reflect the political values and governance principles that have consistently guided the six previous budgets that his government has presented since 2015.
“Most of the capital spending will be in the Economic and Social Sectors, in keeping faith with our stated governance agenda. We propose to devote 76.8% of the capital budget to schools, hospitals, and infrastructure, including housing. Capital spending on Education is N68.4bn (29%) and for Health N35.1bn (15%),’’ he said.
According to the governor, ‘’these figures show that the 2022 draft budget estimates express our political values and governance principles in the same consistent manner as our six previous budgets.
‘’ Devoting N115bn to these critical sectors demonstrates continuity in our emphasis on Education and Health as the key drivers of human capital development, and on investments in Infrastructure as essentials to promoting economic competitiveness, support job creation and advance the well-being of our people,’’ he argued.
Justifying the allocations, El Rufai said that they will ‘’ensure that the urban renewal programme, the largest ever infrastructure investments in Kaduna state will be completed, along with initiatives in the health and education sectors.’’
