For the second year running, education got the highest sectoral allocation after Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal presented Sokoto’s 2017 budget estimate to the state House of Assembly.
Presenting the budget before lawmakers on Thursday, Tambuwal said education would gulp N38,426,266,193, representing 27.3% of the budget’s N204,288,364,741 total outlay.
Of the estimate, 69% is allocated to capital projects, while 31% has been dedicated to recurrent expenditure.
According to Tambuwal, the policy thrust of the budget was to ensure sustainable economic development through substantial investment in critical sectors like education, agriculture, healthcare delivery, exploration of mineral resources, investment in renewable energy and infrastructure.
“We will prioritise effective resource management and seek intervention in areas with high potentials to create job opportunities, generate income and improve revenue generation,” the governor said.
He added that though the financial state of affairs in the country is facing huge challenges, the state’s 2017 budget would address key policy issues, including promotion of peaceful coexistence and protection of lives and property.
“We will work to strengthen capacity building of scheduled ministries to ensure they perform better in their tasks.
“Of great importance to us is the promotion of partnership with the private sector in areas of strategic importance to our development objective.
“We will promote value chain through agro-processing and diversification by way of incentivizing farmers and producers, and creating backward and forward linkages between and among institutions, partners and other stakeholders to accelerate economic growth,” he said.
Allocation to other sectors showed that while the Ministry of works and transport got N16.2 billion; ministries of water resources and environment got N10.7 billion; the health sector got N7.7 billion while ministry of housing, lands and survey got N8.2 billion.
Others include ministry of rural and community development (N5.6 billion), ministry of solid minerals and natural resources development (N1.7 billion). The sum of N4billion was set aside for the ministry of commerce, industries and tourism.
While urging the lawmakers to do a diligent job in handling the budget document, Tambuwal said his administration, as demonstrated since it came into office, would prioritise meeting the aspirations of the people of the state.
“I want to emphasise the need for us to work as a team so that together we can move our dear state forward,” he added.