by Ajadi Daniel
Kaduna executive council has approved the draft estimates of the 2017 budget. The council at its meeting on Thursday directed that the N189.9 billion draft budget be submitted for public debate at a special town hall meeting, whose recommendations would be considered before the amended draft budget is presented to the Kaduna House of Assembly.
The Budget town Hall meeting is expected to hold on Saturday, 8th October, 2016, after which the Governor would present to the State Assembly the budget estimates on October 12.
It would be recalled that the 2016 budget was the state’s first budget to be subjected to a Town hall meeting before presentation to the legislature, the outcome of which led to the inclusion of additional N2 billion capital projects in the budget.
The 2017 budget tagged as budget of Jobs, Social Justice, and Prosperity gives special priority allocation to capital projects. The commissioner for Budget and Planning, Muhammad Sanni Abdullahi stated that “the executive has a responsibility for early preparation and submission of the budget to give the legislature ample time to deliberate on it”.