Umahi, Dickson Present Budgets of N208.3b, N295b for 2018

By Benjamin Nworie in Abakaliki and Emmanuel Addeh in Yenagoa

Ebonyi State Governor, Dr. David Umahi on Friday presented a budget appropriation bill of N208.3 billion for the 2018 to the state House of Assembly.

This is as the Bayelsa State Government plans to spend 50 per cent of its proposed N295 billion budget on building additional infrastructure in the state, Governor Seriake Dickson, said yesterday.

Before the presentation, Umahi also inaugurated the reconstructed ultramodern House of Assembly complex which he embarked upon on assumption of office.

Tagged, budget of Divine Manifestation, the Expenditure ratio between Recurrent and the Capital Expenditure is 20.8% to 79.20%.  The governor said that the Recurrent Expenditure would gulp N43.326bn (including in-built contingency fund of N3bn that would be mainly expended in unforeseen areas of recurrent needs), while the Capital Expenditure would also gulp N165.004bn inclusive of contingency provision of N5.5bn for capital projects.

He noted the budget would be financed by increasing her tax revenue in the 2018 Fiscal Year by aggressively diversifying into numerous untapped tax revenue sources.

Umahi said “the Budget of Divine Manifestation” in the sum of N208, 331, 870, 036.100. The inflow from Federation Account amounts to N72.916bn or 35% of our State’s 2018 Budget Estimates. This includes statutory allocation and the component of the capital receipt, which includes: Value Added Tax share of Exchange Rate Gain; non-oil Revenue Reimbursement from the Federal Government of Nigeria.”

“Other sources include: N18.889bn unutilized dedicated funds that will be carried forward as the opening bank balance for the financial year; N100.562bn internal loan and N13.965bn from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)”.

“The Economic Sector has a provision of N124.064, thus taking the largest-chunk of the Capital provision. This is justified on the basis of Government’s serious commitment to commence the construction of flyovers, rehabilitation of urban roads, construction of rural roads, water reticulation in our urban centers among other commitments”.

“Within the Economic Sub-sector, works and transport has the highest allocation of N96.567bn followed by Ministry of Power with the sum of N4.626bn and the sum of N63.811bn. is shared among other sub-sectors”.

The speaker of the state house of assembly, Francis Nwifuru commended the governor for the budget performance of the 2017 fiscal year, assuring him of the speedy passage of the appropriation bill into law..

 

Dickson who spoke while presenting the 2018 appropriation bill  to the state House of Assembly, noted that his administration would continue to prioritise the completion of capital projects embarked upon by him.

 

 

In the proposed budget tagged ‘Finishing Strong on Development, Stability and Prosperity Phase 1’, Dickson said he would spend N146.6bn (50 per cent) on infrastructure; N48bn (16.27 per cent) on personnel; N42.6bn (14.42 per cent) on overhead while consolidated revenue fund charges would gulp N58bn (19.6 per cent).

 

 

On the sources of revenue, the government noted that N200 billion would come from statutory allocation; Value Added Tax (VAT) N8.5bn; Internally-Generated Revenue N24bn and other capital receipts would generate N62.7bn.

 

 

The state’s Ministry of Works and Infrastructure got the lion’s share of N36bn followed by the ministries of Education, N22bn; Budget and Economic Planning, N13bn; Housing N10bn,  Health N8.5bn among others.

 

 

Dickson, who  highlighted the achievements of his government in 2017 said the 2018 budget was geared towards paying more attention to all the capital investments in the state.

 

He said all the senatorial roads would receive adequate attention while efforts would be made to construct more internal roads in Yenagoa, the state capital.

 

 

Dickson vowed to sustain the ongoing reforms in the public sector especially eliminating payroll fraud in the state, adding that as from next year all the tertiary institutions would only receive grants from the state government.

 

 

He, however, said the reforms in the educational sector would not affect teachers and assured workers of better welfare in 2018.

 

Dickson insisted that the ongoing public sector cleansing was aimed at freeing funds and space to enable the government lift the existing embargo on employment.

 

The governor promised to ensure the completion of the international cargo airport, noting that early next year the first commercial flight would land in Yenagoa.

 

 

Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Mr. Kombowei Benson, in his remarks, extolled the governor and congratulated him on a job well done.

 

He commended Dickson for his investments in education and promised to give the budget adequate and accelerated attention.