By Philip Yatai

Follow Taxes, has called on the Kaduna State House of Assembly to increase funding for the state’s Social Development Agency to improve the livelihood of people in rural communities.

The Co-founder, Dr Saied Tafida, made the call in the NGO’s Submissions to the Assembly on the state’s 2021 Draft budget, made available to newsmen in Kaduna.

Tafida explained that the agency’s budgetary allocation has been slashed from N5.97 billion in 2020 to N94 million in the 2021 draft budget, a development he described as “worrisome”.

He said that the agency, which replaced the Ministry for Rural and Community Development has become the strongest link to bridge the widening inequality between urban and rural areas.

According to him, the dwindling funding of the sector accompanied with poor budget releases and cash backing, will cause a serious migration of the population from rural to urban centres.

“Majority of Kaduna citizens live in rural communities and as such largely depend on the social development agency to implement interventions that will improve their livelihood.

“We, therefore, appeal to the honourable House to increase funding of the agency in the 2021 propose budget with a view to take development to rural areas,” he said.

Tafida also chided the state government for not adhering to International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).

He pointed out that some of the budget items in the 2020 budget as well as the 2021 draft budget have no breakdown of intervention and actual location and amount as guided by IPSAS.

This, according to him, was to enable the citizens to directly identify the location of projects in their communities and monitor them for effective service delivery.

He urged the Assembly to look into it and ensure that the state budget adheres to IPSAS guidelines to strengthen citizens’ engagement in monitoring budget implementation.

He also raised concern over the state’s non adherence to Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) which recommended that the 2021 budget should not exceed N170 billion.

The Planning and Budget Commission had on Oct. 3 held a virtual 2021 Draft Budget Townhall Meeting to allow citizens to engage the draft budget and make inputs.

Gov. Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State on Oct. 6 presented the 2021 Draft Estimate of Revenues and Expenditure to the House of Assembly for consideration and passage.

El-Rufai presented a budget size of N237.5 billion, of which N157.6 billion, representing 66 per cent of the budget was proposed for capital expenditure and N79.96, representing 34 per cent for recurrent expenditure.

However, the budget document uploaded at the state website, kdsg.gov.ng shows that the capital expenditure was reduced from N157.6 billion to N157.5 billion while recurrent expenditure was increased to N80 billion.

This indicates a slight change in the budget by N100 million after the budget town hall meeting.

On Thursday, the state Assembly also held a virtual Public Hearing on the state’s proposed budget to further create space for citizens to engage the budget process in line with Open Government Partnership.

The Speaker of the House, Alhaji Yusuf Zailani, had assured that all issues raised, and inputs made during the virtual public hearing would be considered by the lawmakers.