Kwara State Government Democratizes Budget Preparation, Organizes 3rd Leg Of Citizens Engagement Session

Governor of Kwara, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq is taking a new approach, enhancing the tenets of democracy by engaging citizens of the state in the process of budget preparation.

AbdulRazaq, opined that his administration aims at demystifying the budgetary preparation process, and making it less elitist and more participatory.

AbdulRazaq said this on Tuesday in Ilorin at the inauguration of a three-phased citizens’ engagement session on 2021 budget.

“Our budgets are often too elitist and we are working in Kwara to address this. This meeting is one of such steps. We will make sure that fewer technical terms are used so that ordinary folks can understand and own”, the Governor stated.

In a statement on social media, he said:

“On December 10th 2019, our administration organised the first-ever citizens’ engagement session on budget preparation in the state. That engagement was meant to harvest the views of the people on what shape and direction they wanted the 2020 budget to take.

“While we will always seek to do more, I am proud to say that the views of our people were respected in the budget. At that citizens’ engagement session, I promised that such event would henceforth be an integral part of our budget process.

“I also said we will hold the sessions across our three senatorial districts. I am proud to say that we have fulfilled that promise with this flag-off today. Another one is slated for Kwara North on Thursday while the 3rd leg of the engagement will hold in Kwara South on Sept 7th.

“The idea is to further democratise the budget preparation process in line with the global best practices of transparency and inclusion.

“Indeed, our administration has taken budget beyond the annual rituals it was in Kwara State.

“We are making sure that the budget is implemented to have positive impacts in the lives of the people. For the first time in many years, we recorded 52% implementation of the capital expenditure component of the 2019 budget.

“The closest to that in recent years was 42% that was achieved in 2017. Similarly, we posted a record 98% implementation of the recurrent expenditure in the same budget.

“These underscore our commitment to infrastructural development and the welfare of the people. Notwithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic and the disruptions to the global economy, our resolve will be to beat this record.

“I thank everyone who participated in the session. Their contributions will guide us on the best way to utilise the limited resources for our state to serve the people”.