By Marie-Therese Nanlong

Jos—Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, yesterday presented the 2016 budget proposal tagged “Budget of Rescue and Hope” put at One Hundred and Fifty Four Billion, Seventy Two Million, Five Hundred and Seventy Thousand, Four Hundred and Forty Two Naira (N154,072,570,442.00) to the State House of Assembly.

Simon Lalong

The proposed budget shows a drop of 28.5% from the 2015 budget which stood at Two Hundred and Fifteen Billion, Four Hundred and Sixty Five Million, Eight Hundred and Thirty Five Thousand, Four Hundred and Eighteen Naira, (N215,465,835,418.00).

The governor noted that the drop in the budget is to reflect realities on ground and the adoption of zero based budget in line with the Federal Government’s directive.

“This is the first budget to be presented to this House, the 8th Assembly, under my administration.

After giving an overview of the performance of 2015 budget which he said was poor, Lalong gave details of the 2016 budget which is made up of N75,019,373,878.00) representing 48.7% of the total budget as Recurrent Expenditure.