* Sani-Bello

 By Pita Chib, Minna 

 Niger State Governor Abubakar Sani-Bello  Wednesday signed into law the 2018 appropriation bill. 

 The state House of Assembly  approved a budget size of N134.28 billion as against N128.01 billion presented by the Executive December 2017

 The budget that was signed at the Council Chamber of Government House, Minna now has an increase of N6.27 billion.

 Tagged "the people's budget, the breakdown showed that the recurrent expenditure of the budget is pegged at N53.2 billion, while the capital expenditure will gulp N81.4 billion, as against the initial size of N52.15 billion for recurrent expenditure and the N75.85 billion for capital expenditure presented.

 “We have deliberately tagged this year's budget as 'The People's Budget', because our administration aims at deploying resources to those projects that have greater impacts on our people using our shared vision with unlimited opportunities," he explained. 

 Bello said that the cordial relationship existing between the executive and the legislative arm was responsible to the quick passage of the bill. 

 He said that even though they do have their differences sometimes, he believed it was the normal process on how things ought to be, seen as separation of power in government.

 The Governor then assured the people of the state of his readiness  swing into action by implementing the fiscal policy, adding that government machinery will work at full force now that the budget us passed by  ensuring that most projects are carried out before the end of the year.

 "The government machinery will work at full force. we have no excuse to fail. We have lost few months due to nobody's fault. We will try and make it up before the end of the year."

 “We have deliberately tagged this year's budget as 'The People's Budget', because our administration is aimed at deploying resources to those projects that have greater impacts on our people using our shared vision with unlimited opportunities," he said.

 According to him, the 2018 budget is a product of wider consultations and findings base on the needs of the people.

 The governor assured every Nigerlites of that the 2019 appropriation bill will be submitted to the state assembly in the last quarter of the year for quick passage thereby calling of the Ministry of Budget and Planning to ensure that the have the budget ready.

 Presenting the approved appropriation bill to the governor for signing, Speaker, Niger State House of Assembly,  Ahmed Marafa,  said that the executive and legislatures have enjoyed a harmonious working relationship.

 Marafa noted that since the inception of Governor Bello's administration the budget pattern has change where the capital expenditure was now more than the recurrent expenditure a deviation of what was witnessed in the past.

 The speaker said that 60 percent of the budget will go for capital projects while 40 percent would be spent on recurrent expenditure.