The Gombe state government says it will spend N32.24 billion on payment of workers salaries in the 2025 fiscal year.
Muhammad Magaji, Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development, stated this during the 2025 budget breakdown exercise, on Tuesday in Gombe.
Governor Inuwa Yahaya on Monday assented to the N369.9 billion Appropriation Bill passed by the state’s legislature.
Mr Magaji said the amount was 10.31 per cent higher than the 2024 personnel cost of N29.22 billion, adding that the increase in the personnel cost to the tune of N3 billion would fast track implementation of the N70,000 national minimum wage.
He said the government planned to spend N38.08 billion as overhead cost representing 10.29 per cent of the approved estimate, adding that the overhead for 2024 was 22.72 per cent lower than that of the incoming year.
The commissioner said the state government would spent 10.02 per cent of its budget on debt servicing in the next financial year.
He said that N37.22 billion representing 18.08 per cent increase of the N31.52 billion used in debt servicing in 2024, stressing that there was no cause for alarm over the allocation of 10 per cent of the budget for debt servicing in 2025.
According to Mr Magaji, the approved limit by the Debt Management Office for borrowing is 40 per cent, and it should not be more than 40 per cent of the state’s budget before such state could borrow.
Magaji said that 10 per cent was low, indicating that the state was doing well and managing its financial affairs appropriately.
“We are borrowing to improve infrastructure, and there is nowhere in the world where the government does not borrow for infrastructure and does not borrow to ensure that services that are required are put in place.
“We don’t borrow for recurrent. All we borrow is for capital projects and that is bests practices,” he said.
On revenue, Mr Magaji said the state projected a N25.66 billion Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, representing 17.58 per cent of the total budget for 2025, indicating a N600 million increase over the previous financial year.
On sectorial allocations, he said that infrastructure got the lion share of 22.82 per cent of the total budget size; followed by education 15.14 per cent, health 9.14 per cent, and agriculture 5.40 per cent, respectively.
(NAN)
