C/River Ministry of Finance Eulogies Former Commissioner Asuquo Ekpenyong, as the State Ranks Top

Florence Kekong (Information Officer, Ministry of Finance), in Cross River State has applauded the performance in annual ranking of states’ fiscal performance, under the leadership of Mr. Asuquo Ekpenyong ( former commissioner of finance).

Improving from 14th position in 2020 to 8th position in 2021 and to the 4th position nationally in 2022. This rise was driven by the Cross River State Ministry of Finance and cluster agencies & departments

The finance cluster were able to achieve significant improvement on fiscal performance indices year-on-year for the State, by focusing on improved accountability & transparency; increased public revenue; rationalised public expenditure; improved public financial management and sustainable debt management.

Florence Kekong who is the Information officer, Cross River State Ministry of Finance disclosed that the State also improved her financial reporting and transparency. According to her the Ministry of Finance and its cluster departments and agencies ensured that quarterly budget implementation reports were made available to enable citizens to track how well the state was financing all its budgetary commitments. The State also increased prioritization of capital expenditure over its operating expenses, and the ability of the state to fund their operating expenses and loan repayments seamlessly within the fiscal year.

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The State of States ranking initiative is an annual exercise carried out to assess the fiscal performance of all 36 sub national government in Nigeria.