Governor Gabriel Suswam

George Okoh 
in Makurdi


Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State has presented an Appropriation Bill of N130.9 billion to the state House of Assembly for 2013 fiscal year.

The governor, who presented the budget christened: “Budget of Development and Growth Effectiveness” on the floor of the Assembly on Tuesday in Makurdi, urged members of the Assembly to accord accelerated passage to the bill in order to allow his administration carry on with its developmental agenda.

He explained that a breakdown of the expenditure profile revealed that N68.5 billion had been set aside for capital projects, while recurrent expenditure would gulp over N67.5billion.

The governor put the personnel cost estimates at N39.8 billion or 30.45 per cent of the total proposed budget, while total expected overhead costs was put at N22.6 billion or 17.23 per cent of the total proposed budget.

While lamenting the increasing annual wage bill of the state, which he put at over N39 billion, he stated that the projected revenue for year 2013 from all sources is 130,992,126,509.00 which translated into the total expenditure outlay of the same amount.