Group calls for CSOs' involvement in budget formulation

Group calls for CSO’s involvement in budget formulation
Group
Warri (Delta), July 13, 2018 (NAN) A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Delta Economic Literacy and Accountability for Governance (DELBAG), has called for inclusion of the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the Delta budget formulation.
The Leader of the group, Mr Ogheneruona Itoghor, made the call during a forum tagged ‘‘Analysed 2018 Delta Budget Allocation’’.
The event held on Thursday night in Warri, Delta.
Itoghor expressed dissatisfaction at the 2018 Delta Budget allocation to agriculture, and urged the state government to comply with the Maputo Declaration of 10 per cent budget allocation to agriculture.
He claimed that that the Mobilisation of Rural Women for Sustainable Agriculture, as a budget item, was expunged from the state’s 2018 Budget for agriculture.
‘‘The trend analysis of the budget from 2013 to 2018 shows that allocation to agriculture has not met the Maputo Declaration of 10 per cent.
‘‘The 2018 budgetary allocation for agriculture is 0.9 per cent, even if we add the N1.2 billion budgeted for Job Creation Office, it is still mere 1.3 per cent vis-a-vis the total budget for 2018.
Itoghor, however, applauded allocation of N200 million to Agricultural Development Programme in the state in 2018.
‘‘Monitoring and evaluation of agriculture capital budget will be more robust when CSOs are involved to conduct independent evaluations.
‘‘Budget should be participatory, gender sensitive and inclusive to reflect Sustainable Development Goals,’’ he said
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Delta Government passed a total budget of N308.9 billion for the 2018. (NAN)
EDI/MOL/IGO
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Edited by Mustapha Lamidi/Ijeoma Popoola