Gombe Lawmakers Approve N208bn 2024 Budget

The Gombe State House of Assembly approved the state’s N208.064 billion 2024 budget projection.

According to The PUNCH, the state governor, Alhaji Muhammadu Yahaya, had previously presented a budget of N207.750 billion; however, this new amount represents a rise of N300 million.

The budget estimate was broken down in a statement released on Wednesday and signed by Mr. Umaru Ma’aji, the Chief Information Officer of the House.

The announcement reported House Speaker Abubakar Luggerewo as saying that he was grateful for the legislators’ cooperation, support, and the way the appropriations bill was handled.

The Appropriations Committee Chairman, Alhaji Aliyu Manu, representing Gombe North, presented the committee’s report and stated that his committee found that the majority of the budget officers in Ministries, Departments, and Agencies were not familiar with the budget provisions, which are governed by the Medium Term Expenditure Framework.

 “Therefore we recommend that henceforth budget office should transmit executive council’s approved budget to ministries and as well as consider and approved N208, 064,000,000.00, as total budget size of Gombe state,” the statement partly read.

In addition, Ma’aji stated that 11% of the budget goes to the social sector and 43% goes to the economic sector, with the 2024 budget, dubbed the “Budget of Continuity and Consolidation,” focusing on finishing all ongoing projects beginning with the current governor’s first term.

He added, “After a clause by clause consideration by the Speaker, Abubakar Luggerewo, at the committee of the whole and contributions by the members, the bill was read for the third time and passed into law.”

Luggerewo praised his colleagues for the committee members’ cooperation and support.

Concurrently, the House has approved a resolution to remind Gombe North representatives in the National Assembly to follow up at the Federal Ministry of Works over the poorly maintained Gombe Funakaye – Nafada Road, which has been previously awarded but not funded.

The House Committee on Works and Transportation Chairman, Mustapha Hassan, made this claim in his committee’s report. He said that after interacting with the Federal Ministry of Works Area Office Gombe, FERMA, and the State Ministry of Works and Transportation, his committee discovered that the project was included in the Federal Government’s 2024 budget.