A Non-governmental Organisation, USAID Nigeria State2State, yesterday stressed that consultations before the formulation of any budget were designed to guarantee conflict management and peacebuilding, even development, prevent mismatch of development projects and programmes and create community ownership of government projects
This was part of the Lecture delivered by the NGO during its workshop tagged “2024 Ebonyi State Budget Consultations”, at State2State Field Office, Abakalikii, Ebonyi State.
Giving a background of the meeting, the State Team Lead,, USAID Nigeria State2tate Activity, Dr Sam Onyi stated that the purpose of the workshop was to ensure that the 2024 budget represented the aspiration of Nigerians through their inputs, views and engagements during public consultation.
He said: “We are trying to see the manner the budget will take. We must be candid. Our aim is to make sure that the 2024 budget represents the aspiration of Nigerians. Sectors like Education, Healthcare and other critical segments need to be captured. The State Development Plan, SDP is used to engage government. Other countries develop faster because they plan well.
“We need to be focused. Ebonyi State was supported by USAID to develop this document and it is important to enable us get to where we want to get to.”
In her lecture titled “Guiding Principles for Public Budget Consultation and Requirements of the Budget Manual/Calendar” the Local Government Manager, State Team Lead, STL, State2State, Mrs. Victoria Eze who described budget as “a central policy document of government, showing how it will prioritize and achieve its annual and multi-annual objective” listed the importance of budget consultation to include “need to comply with policy or legislative requirements, ensure resource allocation is in line with government policy objectives priorities, serve as a reference point for performance review, even as it is a contract between citizens and the State, showing how resources are generated and allocated.”
The participants, who were drawn from Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs of government, representative of persons with disabilities, Civil society organizations, CSOs and the private sector, further stressed the need for an all-inclusive participation of the general public on issues revolving around the 2024 budget, involvement of the CSOs and other critical segments during budget consultations.
