Plateau Government to spend N34.5bn on health, education, works

      

The Plateau State Government said it has allocated the sum of N34, 522, 860, 250 billion to its Education, Health, Works and Transport sectors in its 2016 budget.
This was disclosed yesterday in Jos, by the State Commissioner of Finance, Mrs Tamwakat Weli, while giving a breakdown of the 2016 budget tagged: “Budget of Rescue and Hope.”
Weli said, the budget is aimed at salvaging the citizens of the State from deprivation, insecurity and poverty.

“A total sum of N12, 435, 413, 308 billion is allocated to the educational sub-sector, representing 16.95% of the capital budget estimate.
“This amount will be used for the completion of ongoing renovation and construction of Secondary Schools and provision of infrastructure at the tertiary institutions.
The Commissioner added that, the sum of, “N5, 888, 446, 942 billion has been approved for the health sub-sector,” representing 8.03% of the capital estimate.
She said this was done because of the present administration’s desire to complete/expand 3 general hospitals in Riyom, Mabudi and Kwal, cutting across the three senatorial zones of the state, among other areas to be transformed.

However, the largest chunk of the capital budget estimate, goes to Works and Transport, which according to Weli, the sum of N21, 499, 000, 000 billion was allocated to that sector, which is 29.43% of the capital budget estimate.
She maintained that, “emphasis will be on the completion of ongoing road projects and initiation of very critical ones.
“For us to be able to complete these programmes and initiate new ones contained in the budget, we will require the patience and understanding of the citizens of the State, in the face of dwindling resources”, she appealed.
It would be recalled that, Governor Simon Lalong had recently signed into law the 2016 budget estimate of N146,696,185,118 billion, showing a decrease of N N7,376,385,324 from what was initially presented to the State House of Assembly.
The sum of Seventy three billion, three hundred and seventy one million, seventy four thousand, nine hundred and sixty naira (N73,371,074,960:00) is for Capital expenditure, while Seventy three billion, three hundred and twenty five million one hundred and ten thousand, one hundred and fifty eighty naira(N73,325,110,158:00) for recurrent expenditure