Governor Nasir El Rufai has presented the 2023 draft budget to Kaduna State House of Assembly and the estimates conformed with his administration’s 60: 40 ratio of capital to recurrent expenditure. It is the eighth and final budget of Governor El-Rufai’s tenure which ends in May 2023.
The 2023 Appropriation Bill has a total size of N370.33bn Budget, which is a 21.82%increase from the 2022 revised appropriation of N303.99bn.
Giving a breakdown of the draft budget, the governor said that ‘’the sum of N242.21bn is proposed as capital expenditure, and N127.7bn as recurrent expenses in the 2023 estimates.’’
“The capital to recurrent ratio of 65.5% to 34.48% reflects our consistent commitment to investment over consumption,’’ El Rufai pointed out.
The governor further said that the 2023 estimates maintain focus on human capital development, adding that ‘’our proposal allocates 45.34% of the budget to Education and Health.’’
According to him, the allocations of 29% to the Education sector and 16.05% to Health leave no doubt about our abiding commitment to human capital development.’’
El-Rufai added that ‘’the 2023 budget estimates make provisions for continued pro-poor interventions in nutrition, health care, skills acquisition and empowerment funds for women, youths, and vulnerable groups.
“Along with provisions for the Social Investment Programme, these pro-poor interventions are costed at N11.32bn, representing about 3% of the proposed budget size,’’ he added.
The governor noted that the proposed budget estimates assume that crude oil prices will stabilise around USD70 per barrel and that the official exchange rate will be around N435.57 to the dollar.
According to him, ‘’uncertainties persist in the global economy. Promising signs of a sustained recovery from Covid-19 have been replaced by fears of inflation and recession in the major economies.’’
“This economic climate may affect demand for Nigeria’s main export, petroleum, with consequences for the exchange rate, prices and general economic performance,’’ he added.
