Nasarawa state budgets N2.1bn for office furniture, refreshments, more than health, water facilities

By Aminu Abubakar

A review of the 2024 budget documents of Nasarawa state has shown that N2.1 billion was budgeted for Office furniture and fittings, refreshments and meals.

This is broken down to N630 million for refreshments and meals and another N1.5 billion for office furniture and fittings.

In total, the state plans to spend N2.1 billion on office furniture and fittings purchases, refreshments and meals.

This budgeted expenditure is more than the N1.130 billion budgeted by the state for the provision of hospitals/health facilities.

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It is also more than the N1.879 billion budgeted for the provision of water facilities.

SolaceBase reports that the state also plans to spend more on office furniture and fittings than capital expenditure for its primary healthcare development agency which is estimated at N1.18 billion.

The capital expenditure budget for the Nasarawa state rural water supply and sanitation agency stands only at N353 million, far lesser than the budget for refreshments and meals alone, put at N630 million.

This imbalance in expenditure is despite the fact that 80% of households in Nasarawa lack access to sanitary facilities and another 71% lack access to clean drinking water.

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This development of prioritizing office furniture and refreshment over healthcare, and water provision also comes amid concerns on the poor state of Nasarawa state primary health centers which are reported to be neglected by the government.

In 2021 also the state government declared an emergency for water and sanitation in the state.

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As of March, this year, it was reported that residents of Lafia in Nasarawa groaned over poor water access, showing the dire need for water provision amid government prioritizing office furniture and refreshments.

There have been calls for more prudence in the management of government resources especially in relation to human development.