By Dave Ukah
Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State has presented the 2022 Appropriation Bill of N145,410,597.49 to the State Assembly
The bill which was tagged “Budget of Latter Rain”, represents an increase of 46.65% over the 2021 revised approved budget.
Umahi while presenting the appropriation bill explained that the 46.65% increase of the 2022 budget over the 2021 revised Budget was due to the carryover of a large part of the expected receipts in the 2021 fiscal year to the next fiscal year.
Among such carryovers, he noted, is the Federal Government bridging finance of N18.225bn which he said is given to each of the 37 States in the country.
“We expect N4.315bn from TETFund for our tertiary institutions, UBEB growth of over N1.2bn, SFTAS of N16.727bn and Domestic Loan of N7bn”, Umahi told the Lawmakers.
The Governor revealed that the proposed capital expenditure of the budget is N89.763.717.205 representing 61.73percent while recurrent expenditure is proposed to be N55.646.880.517.69 or 38 27 percent of reg total budget.
“This proportion of 61 73peecent of capital to 38.27 percent recurrent is structured bearing in mind our determination to deepen our capital projects development especially the completion of ongoing projects”, he said.
A breakdown shows that education, works and infrastructural development for concession ministries got the highest chunk of the budget.
The Education Ministry is to gulp N24,397,399, 015.78 covering 16.78 percent of the budget.
While the Ministry of Infrastructural Development for Concession is to get N17, 498,56,922.44 covering 12.03percent, the Ministry of Works and Transport is projected to get N24, 335, 057, 558.09 which is 16.74 per cent of the budget.
The Ministry of Agriculture is to get N3,425,238,354.88 which is 2.38 per cent of the 2022 budget sum.
Umahi noted that the state government has profiled 200 youths and women from each local government area to access the N3bn #Endsars empowerment programme from January 2022.
” In 2022, we are going to pursue the stoppage of leakages and illegal revenue collections. We shall promote ease of doing business and automate our revenue collection processes to prevent multiple taxes”, he said.
He added that the state government is going to come up with more sophisticated strategies to generate more revenue for the benefit of the state.
He expressed hope that the ongoing dualization of the Abakaliki to Afikpo and Abakaliki to Enugu roads will achieve over 80 per cent completion before the end of 2022.
The Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, in his speech, lauded the leadership ingenuity of Governor Umahi and assured that the budget proposal would be given speedy passage.
The budget proposal passed first and second reading in the presence of the Governor before the House was adjourned to a later date.
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