The Taraba State Government has commenced zonal consultations with citizens and key stakeholders as part of preparations for the 2027 Appropriation Bill, with the Commissioner for Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Dr Sarah Enoch Adi, describing public participation as the foundation of a credible budget.
Dr. Adi, who spoke at the 2027 Citizens Engagement Budget Consultation Forum held in Wukari, said the consultation was designed to enable communities to identify and communicate their priority needs to government before the budget is finalised.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr Douglas Kisava, the commissioner said the government was committed to a bottom-up approach to budget preparation, stressing that effective planning must begin with a solid foundation.
She urged participants to make realistic and development-oriented submissions that could help government allocate scarce resources to areas of greatest need.
According to her, development should not be measured solely by physical infrastructure, as investments in human capital, education and capacity building are equally critical.
She cited the state government’s investment in postgraduate education and training of public officials as examples of human capital development that may not immediately translate into visible infrastructure but are essential to the state’s long-term growth.
Adi said the administration was also strengthening the capacity of the civil service through training and retraining, adding that a competent workforce was necessary to sustain development programmes across the state.
She urged stakeholders to use the consultation to present credible priorities capable of informing the 2027 budget and improving development outcomes across the state.
Earlier, the Chairman of Wukari Local Government Area, Hon. Bala Huissaini, commended the state government for adopting a bottom-up approach to budget preparation.
Huissaini said the initiative would give citizens an opportunity to contribute directly to the identification of projects and programmes that address their immediate needs.
He called on traditional rulers, community leaders, women and youth groups, persons with disabilities and other stakeholders to make meaningful contributions to the process.
Also speaking, the President of the Taraba State Traditional Council of Chiefs, His Majesty Dr Ishaku Adda Ali, commended Governor Agbu Kefas for involving citizens in the budget preparation process.
Adda Ali said consultation with the people would enable government to understand their needs and priorities before committing public resources.
He, however, urged participants to make realistic demands in view of the state’s available resources and competing development needs.
He said, “We will tell him our requirements, we will tell him our needs, our priorities. By so doing, he is going to do whatever we want, not what he wants.”
The monarch urged stakeholders to ensure that their submissions reflected genuine community needs and could be realistically implemented within available resources.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the Coalition of Civil Society Organisations in Taraba State, Dr Joseph Gimba, urged citizens to take ownership of the budget process by identifying projects according to the level of government responsible for implementing them.
Dr. Gimba said communities should distinguish between projects that could be handled by local governments and those requiring state or federal government intervention.
He also called on citizens to monitor projects captured in the budget, stressing that public participation should not end with the submission of proposals.
According to him, civil society organisations in the state have contributed to a number of policy initiatives, including the renaming of the College of Agriculture to the College of Agriculture, Science and Technology and the establishment of the Taraba State Disability Commission.
Dr. Gimba further urged local government authorities to strengthen community-level consultations through community development officers so that grassroots needs could be properly documented and forwarded for consideration in the budget.
He said the state’s continued public participation in budget preparation had contributed to its performance in budget transparency assessments, and urged stakeholders to sustain the practice.
The two-day zonal consultation, organised by the Taraba State Ministry of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning in collaboration with the Network of Civil Society for Community Development in Taraba, commenced in the Southern Taraba Zone.
It brought together women and youth groups, persons with disabilities, religious and community leaders, traditional rulers, local government chairmen and other stakeholders from Wukari, Donga, Takum, Ussa and Ibi local government areas.
The ministry’s delegation also paid a courtesy visit to the Wukari local government chairman and the traditional council, where stakeholders commended the initiative and pledged their support for the administration’s development agenda.
END::::