Kwara to raise N4.4bn from banks

Kwara State Governor Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed
| credits: 247ureports.com

The Kwara State Government has said that it will source N4.4bn as internal loans from commercial banks pending when it can access the revised N23bn bond.

The state House of Assembly had approved the executive’s proposal to access a N30bn bond, which was later revised to N23bn.

The Commissioner for Planning and Economic Development, Mr. Abraham Ogunleye, who stated this during the breakdown of the state’s 2014 budget in Ilorin on Monday, also said the state House of Assembly increased the budget of N124.5bn as proposed by Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed to N130.26bn, an increase of five per cent.

He stated that the increase was a result of the inclusion of the internal loans because of possible delay in securing the bond.

The commissioner said from the approved budget, the state was expected to receive N44bn as statutory allocation, which will make up 34 per cent of the total revenue; N8.052bn from Value Added Tax and N3.175bn from the Excess Crude.

He added that the government was expecting N17.723bn as Internally Generated Revenue and N22.311bn as capital receipts.

Ogunleye said the state government would spend N63.86bn as capital expenditure; N17.278bn as public debt charges; and N49.126bn as recurrent expenditure (personnel and overhead costs).

He said, “More concerted efforts will be made on the IGR drive to improve collection mechanism in the face of dwindling federal statutory allocations as well as finance prudence, blockage of leakages, optimum utilisation and avoidance of wastage in whatever form.