By Olufemi Oni, Ilorin

The Kwara State Executive Council has approved the presentation of N187.5bn revised budget to the House of Assembly, with emphasis to be placed on ongoing capital projects and consistent payment of the new minimum wage across board.

The revised estimate represents a shortfall of about N2bn or 1.1%, from the approved 2022 budget of N189.6bn.

The council approval was reportedly given following a presentation of the estimates and performance of the approved budget by Commissioner of Finance Florence Olasumbo Oyeyemi.

The Council meeting was chaired by Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.

Oyeyemi said 52.34 percent of the revised budget would go for recurrent, while capital expenditure would gulp the remaining 47.66 percent.

The Commissioner said the recurrent peaked because of the need to accommodate rise in personnel cost (such as full implementation of the minimum wage in the mainstream civil service, agencies and parastatals of the state government, including the Colleges of Education) and other overhead items.

The proposal, the Commissioner said, would be submitted to the parliament soon.

End