Bassey Inyang in Calabar, Igbawase Ukumba in Lafia and Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi
Enugu State Governor, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed, Cross River State Governor, Sir Ben Ayade and Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, yesterday signed their states’ 2021 Budgets into law.
While Ugwuanyi signed N169,845,758,500 for Enugu, Mohammed signed N213,914,559,427 for Bauchi, Ayade signed N281.9billion and Sule signed N115.8 billion respectively.
In Enugu, Ugwuanyi thanked members of the state House of Assembly for their partnership with the state government as well as diligent discharge of their legislative responsibilities which saw to the smooth and timely passage of the budget.
The governor who also thanked God for 2020, prayed that the coming year will be better.
Reiterating his resolve to continue to serve Enugu State with the fear of God, Ugwuanyi promised that the 2021 budget will benefit the people of the state, for them to continue to enjoy democracy dividends.
In Bauchi, while signing the budget at the banquet hall of the Government House, Governor Mohammed thanked members of the state House of Assembly for working round the clock and in synergy with the State Executive Council to complete work on the budget within 10 days.
He said by working for the common goal of serving the people collectively with the state Assembly dominated by the opposition, the state has set the pace in politics and good governance.
Mohammed said the 2021 budget tagged: ‘Budget of Consolidation’, is larger than that of last year, adding that the ratio of recurrent and capital is within the global best practice.
In Cross River State, Ayade while speaking at the signing ceremony which held at the State Executive chambers, Calabar, disclosed that the budget christened, Budget of Blush and Bliss, has made provisions for the establishment of a state polytechnic.
He added that it also has provisions for social welfare schemes like grants and other financial benefits to help cushion the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the people.
The governor disclosed that the size of the budget was smaller when compared with previous budgets that were in the region of over one trillion naira.
He attributed this to the fact that his administration has decided to reduce the financial commitments of the state in key projects such as the Bakassi Deep Seaport and the 275km superhighway to just five per cent
In Nasarawa, Governor Sule, said the new budget figure consists of N53.8 billion for recurrent expenditure, while N54.8 billion is for capital expenditure.
According to him, “N7 billion has been earmarked for Consolidated Revenue Fund Charges.”
He said: “The signing into law of the 2021 Budget will afford us once again, the opportunity to begin the constitutional 12-months budget circle implementation commencing from January 1 to December 31, 2021.”
