We are paying debts incurred by past administrations since 1960s – Yero

From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

The Kaduna State Governor, Alhaji Mukhtar Ramalan Yero said his government is paying off some of the debts taken by past administrations since inception of the state in 1965 which as at December 31, 2013 was USD240,926,306.52 at N155.7 per dollar.

The State Commissioner of Finance, Hon. Sama’ila Aliyu disclosed this in a post-budget briefing held in Kaduna yesterday.  According to him, following an agreement in 1999 which enable Nigeria to resume dialogue with creditors, the State Government through high level diplomatic initiatives gathered support of the international community and was eventually able to get the Paris Club, which is the country’s leading creditor to agree to a historic debt relief package which allowed the country to exit from all its Paris Club debt obligations between October 2004 and April, 2005.

“In 2006 there was reconciliation and sharing of debt obtained as far back as 1965 between the new Kaduna State and Katsina State.  The actual balances outstanding against Kaduna State was USD84,995,475.13.

“These loans do not form part of the debt relief from Paris and London Club.  They are loans obtained from multilateral institutions such as the world Bank, International Development Bank (IDA) and Africa Development Bank (AfDB).

“Over the years subsequent administration in the state continued to borrow from these financial institution for various infrastructural development projects amounted to USD185,968,750.26,” he said.

Speaking on the highlight of the draft budget, Commissioner of Economic Planning, Mr. Madami Garba Madami said the Recurrent expenditure approved estimate in 2014 is N69,647,897,546, supplementary estimates N960,000,000; special virement N5,632,997,404; approved revised estimates N76,240,894,950 while the actual expenditure stood at N62,521,223,880.34 and the performance rate is 82%.

Similarly, capital expenditure for the same year is N131,327,856,875; supplementary estimates N9,388,339,380; special virement (N5,632,997,404); approved revised estimates N135,083,198,851 while actual expenditure is N12,834,605,161.65 with a performance of 9.50%, which bring the total 2014 budget to N200,975,754,42 while actual expenditure amounted to N75,355,829,041.99 with performance rate of 35.66%.

On 2015 budget profile, Mr. Madami Garba Madami said the projected recurrent expenditure is N72,788,841,776 while the projected capital expenditure is N130,912,013,495 totaling N203,700,855,271.

He assured the people that government will ensure strict compliance to the budget profile for the benefit of the people of the state.