The Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, has assented to the N160.9 billion 2017 budget as passed by the Kwara state House of Assembly.

 Speaking during the signing ceremony in his office, Governor Ahmed said with the signing of the budget into law, his administration would commence the immediate execution of some major capital projects, starting with the new campuses of the Kwara State University (KWASU) and other major projects across the state.

 He said: “I want to assure you that as we sign the budget into law, we will hit the ground running. In this regard, some major capital projects slated for execution this year will be flagged-off from next week.

 “We will start with the campuses of Kwara State University we are building for Ilorin School of Governance, College of Agriculture in Ilesha-Baruba and of course, the Osi campus. We will also be flagging-off the Dual Carriage roads and all other projects."

 He said his government is working round the clock to ensure that funding for the budget is made available through the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for optimal implementation of the Appropriation law.  Governor Ahmed said he would uphold adherence to the provisions of the budget.  While commending the House of Assembly for its professional approach to legislative functions, Ahmed said the House would however be approached for supplementary appropriation where the need arises.  

 Earlier, the Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Hon. Ali Ahmad, had said the house passed a budget of N160.9 billion with over N90billion devoted to capital expenditure where all the indices put in place by international organisations are present. He said it is a budget that would be different from all the budgets earlier passed in the state. Hon. Ahmad stated that with the injection of significant capital expenditure into the economy, the state would surely move out of recession faster than expected. 

 It would be recalled that Governor Ahmed presented the 2017 budget estimate of N135,064,529,461 to members of the State House of Assembly for consideration and approval on 29th December, 2016.  However, the approved budget was increased by the House to N160.9b, with N90.1b voted for capital expenditure, while N70.7b was allocated to recurrent expenditure.