Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State on Tuesday presented a budget of N257.9bn for 2020 to the state House of Assembly.

Presenting the budget estimates before the lawmakers, the governor, who was represented by the acting Governor, Dr Hadiza Balarabe, also declared free and compulsory education for every child in the state up to the secondary school level.

El-Rufai said no child would be allowed to roam the streets during school hours as from next year.

The budget tagged, ‘The 2020 Budget of Progressive Renewal,’ comprised a capital component of N190.03bn and recurrent expenditure of N67.87 bn.

The budget, which is a 65.5 per cent increase from the N155.8bn budgeted in 2019, allocated 40.29 per cent for the social sector with education getting N64.64bn (25.07%), N39.61bn (15.36%) for health and N66.34bn (25.72%) for infrastructural development.

The governor said, “The size of the proposed 2020 budget is N257.9bn; when approved, it is projected to have a record capital to recurrent ratio of 73.7 per cent to 26.3 per cent.

“Most of the capital spending will be in the economic and social sectors, in keeping faith with our stated governance agenda.

“Education, health and infrastructure have capital allocations amounting to about N140bn, more than 73 per cent of the proposed capital budget. Capital spending on education is N44.9bn; for health, N30.29bn; and for public works and infrastructure, N64.9bn.”

On how to fund the budget, the governor said opening balance amounts “to N23bn; Internally Generated Revenue, N43.75bn; statutory allocation, N53.824bn; recurrent budget surplus, N52.697bn; Value Added Tax, N18.012bn; internal loans and credit, N3.5bn; internal grants, N63.110bn; external loans, N45.473bn; external grants, N6.238bn; and sales of government assets, N1bn.”

He explained that the thrust of the budget was urban renewal with education, health and infrastructure as the fulcrums with government extending its free education programme to every student from primary to senior secondary school.

The governor said government hired 2,500 teachers of English, Mathematics, Science and ICT for secondary schools, and rehabilitated and upgraded physical facilities in the senior secondary schools.

He added that government had identified a new main campus for the Kaduna State University in Rigachikun, Igabi Local Government, and four satellite campuses in Makarfi, Lere, Birnin Gwari and Kauru.

The governor said, “The summary clearly shows that our priorities in 2020 are human capital development and physical infrastructure.

In his response, the Speaker, Aminu Shagali, said lawmakers would ensure that the 2020 budget was passed within a short time.