Councillors of the Bafut council have voted a Budget, balance in income and expenditure at 1.032 Billion Francs CFA.
The budget voted on the 29th December 2023, witnesses a decrease in relative terms of 14.26 percent vis-a-vis the budget for 2023.
Quizzed about the decrease in the budget, the Mayor of Bafut, Ngwakongoh Lawrence said; "We have voted a budget we can realize. This is not an imaginary budget. We have looked at the prevailing circumstances, what we can attain and where we can get this money from. With a proper collaboration between the council and the councillors, we will achieve this." Mayor Ngwakongoh Lawrence told the Observer.
The chair of the Finance Committee while presenting the merits and demerits of the budget, requested that councillors, council staff and the executive of the council should work in close collaboration with development associations to ensure that building permits are paid to the council, tolls from the sand mine and market tolls are effectively collected to boast the income of the council.
Of the 1.032 budget, 554.2 million goes into investment while the rest will constitute the recurrent expenditure.
The construction of roads, bridges, the extension of water and electricity and the building of classrooms, the equipment of health centers constitute the priority projects for the council.
Mayor Ngwakongoh Lawrence who has undertaken trips to Canada promised that his partners will pay an official visit to Bafut to see how to transform and package the sand to portable quantities like bags of cement.
"My partners will be here and will see how we can package the sand from lower Bafut and market it like cement is marketed in the market. This will create more job opportunities and transform the lives of the sand diggers in the community.
" Our next project like I said before is the transformation of ginger. We are currently looking at the possibility of increasing the production so that once the transformation begins, we will have enough to transform at our disposal." Mayor Ngwakongoh remarked.
The budgetary session saw the adoption of some 16 deliberations amongst which is the creation of a Municipal police force to aid the council in revenue collection and the maintenance of law and order. The councilors also adopted the deliberation on the setting up of the anti-corruption unit, a tourism board and the adoption of a waste management plan for Bafut.
The council will also undertake studies on the Bafut industrial zone in Nchum.
Mayor Ngwakongoh Lawrence
Mayor Ngwakongoh Lawrence used the council session to thank contractors who have not failed in the realization of projects in the Bafut municipality since his coming into office in 2020.
By
Ndi Tsembom Elvis
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