Jigawa State Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, in collaboration with the Exceptional Leadership and Integrity Promotion Initiative (ELIP), a civil society organization, has organized a one-day town hall meeting to gather inputs for the state’s 2026 budget.
In his remark, the State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Alhaji Ibrahim Babangida Umar Gantsa, explained the importance of the town hall meeting, saying that stakeholder inputs are vital.
Babangida Gantsa who was represented by the Director SDG’s of the Ministry, Alhaji Basiru Nasoro urged stakeholders on providing meaningful input.
In his presentation, Alhaji Najibullah Ahmad who is a budget analyst explained that, the objective was to engage citizens and trigger their participation while promoting accountability and transparency in the budget process.
According to him, the meeting will also enable stakeholders to identify areas of priority and help the government in decision making, while providing an enabling environment for accountability.
Najibullah pointed out that, the meeting would also provide annual feed back on how public fund were and will be allocated to meet the public interest.
Also speaking during his presentation,
Alhaji Isa Mustapha who is also staff of the Ministry, explained that the medium term expenditure framework, provides a holistic framework.
According to him, the framework aligns with government’s programs, donor support and the private sector Initiatives towards common goal.
He added that it emphasized inclusiveness, sustainability and efficiency in the use of the state resources, seeking to continuously improve the socio-economic well being if the citizens.
Alhaji Ayuba Doro Gwaram, a representative of ELIP who made a presentation on the extracts from 2024 citizens nominated projects, analysing citizens inputs reflected in the 2025 budget.
Ayuba said, 1,105 inputs were submitted and 548 were reflected in the budget, which represents 49 per cent of the total inputs submitted.
He noted that, the inputs reflected, represented 26.8 per cent of the total capital budget of N175.442 billion of Jigawa state in 2025, which shows that citizens inputs was higher than that of 2023 in monetary terms.
Ayuba pointed some of the challenges which include poor project monitoring, rigidity and feat to dynamism, weak prioritization of resources as well as difficulty in balancing between needs and wants in a democratic space.
Radio Nigeria reports that, several CSO’s and local governments gave various inputs at the town hall meeting which covered 7 local governments of Jigawa state.
COV/USMAN MZ
