Clement Nnachi, Abakaliki
Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State has presented the budget estimate of N 178,138 billion to the State House of Assembly, for the 2020 fiscal year, as against the N 188.401 billion budget proposed in the previous year 2019.
Presenting the Appropriation bill to the 24 member Assembly tagged “Budget of Growth, Consolidation and Transformation” on Friday at the Legislative Chambers Abakaliki, Umahi said that the budget is geared towards actualizing the policies and programmes of the administration in 2020.
According to him the budget comprised of N46.080 billion for Recurrent Expenditure (25.87) percent and N132.056 billion for Capital Expenditure which constitute 74.13 percent of the budget estimate. He said that the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure/Concession has the greatest chunk of the budget.
A breakdown of the allocation shows that Ministry of Works and Ministry of Infrastructure for Concession will receive a total of N54.125 billion, Education gets allocation of N27 billion comprising of 15.21 percent of the total budget sum, Health N15.466 billion, Human Capital Development N8.016 billion, Agriculture N3.769 and Security N2,675 billion respectively.
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He outlined the budgetary allocation to include Administrative Sector which received 16 percent of the budget, Economic Sector 47.47 percent, Law and Justice 50 percent, Regional Sector 28.28 percent and Contingency Fund 5.61 percent respectively.
The Governor said that the administration has constructed five numbers of flyovers in strategic junctions of 8.5 km total length and major Highways across the three senatorial zones of the State in addition to the completion of a new Governor’s lodge and Presidential lodge.
Umahi said in the last six months the Government has engaged over 1,000 Technical Assistants geared towards engaging the young men/women into governance to make them ready tools for the government One-One hectare policy in Agriculture.
According to the Governor, spending on Capital budget has been prioritized in favour of critical ongoing projects, stating that in the 2020 budget, Health, Education, Works, Security, Infrastructure, Agriculture and Human Capital Development would be accorded priority in the 2020 appropriation.
Responding, the Speaker of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Hon. Francis Nwifuru assured that the Lawmakers would give speedy passage of the appropriation bill to speed up the delivery of democratic dividends to the people of the state.