By Matthew Denis
The Kwara State Government will on November 21, 2018 present the 2019 budget to the state House of Assembly.
The Commissioner for Planning and Economic Development, Alhaji Wasiu Odewale made the disclosure during a chat with this medium shortly after a 2019 Budget Policy Direction meeting with Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed on Wednesday.
The meeting which had stakeholders like Chairman House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, All Chairmen House Committee of MDAs, CBC members, all Commissioners , Special Advisers and all Permanent Secretaries was aimed at ensuring effective preparation of the budget.
In a paper presented by the Commissioner during the meeting, he stressed on the need to be properly guided on the fiscal and monetary policy direction for the preparation of a realistic 2019 budget.
He said, “The task ahead of us as a government is to ensure that we minimise our consumption expenditure. We should try to effectively allocate our scarce resources among our unlimited wants between recurrent expenditure and capital expenditure in the state.”
Odewale emphasised that the programme of Shared Prosperity under Governor Ahmed has hinged on consolidating development by leveraging on impacting economic growth, human capital development and youths empowerment, strategic infrastructural development and effective governance.
“In the pursuit of these programmes, the current administration has affected lives positively in the area of road construction, education, portable water, energy, health, agriculture and housing, among others.
According to him, some of the achievements in budget preparation and implementation included adoption of IPSAS budget complaints, zero based budgeting approach, returning the fiscal year back to January to December budget cycle since 20 years ago and online publication of Kwara state 2018 budget.
He stressed that the establishment of Kwara Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS) culminated in blocking leakages thereby leading to efficient revenue collection process and project implementation.
“The establishment of Kwara State Infrastructural Fund (IF-K), Kwara state Land Administration Secretariat (KW-LAS)/among other reforms in the judicial system.
The Commissioner however stressed that the 2019 budget will focus on new revenue lines as an alternative source of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
He said, “We have identified land as the alternative source of revenue and we are reorganising the sector to explore potentials in land assets.
He revealed that the 2019 budget will be identified as a legacy budget of Governor Ahmed to allow the state to sustain itself through IGR.
