Gov Udom presents N597Bn budget proposal for 2020

*Governor Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom

Mkpoikana Udoma –

Port Harcourt — Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, has presented a total budgetary outlay of N597.800billion for the 2020 financial year, to the State House of Assembly for consideration and approval.

The budget indicated that capital expenditure has N369.642billion, recurrent expenditure is estimated to take N111.225billion, while N116.933billion has been estimated for consolidated revenue fund charges.

The 2020 budget which indicates a shortfall from the 2019 budget with its approved provision of N672,985,according to the governor, is predicated on an oil benchmark of $55 per barrel at a production rate of N2.18 million barrels per day, and with an estimated exchange rate of N305/$1, in line with the national budget benchmark projection.

Christened the budget of industralization for poverty alleviation phase II, Emmanuel said the 2020 budget has a total projected revenue estimated of N381.556billion as against the approved provision of N374.758billion for 2019.

“A breakdown of this further indicates that Internally Generated Revenue-N52.556billion, Statutory Allocation-N52.000billion, Derivation Fund-N255.000billion, Retained Revenue from Parastatals -N2.000billion, Value Added Tax-N20.000billion, total N381.556billion.

“The 2020 budget is further anchored on give-point agenda that shaped our first term in office, namely Job Creation, Poverty Alleviation, Wealth Creation, Economic and Political Inclusion, Infrastructural Consolidation and Expansion for continuous transformation of the State into an industrialized entity.

“We are committed to complete all our ongoing projects and other star projects in our completion agenda.” the Governor said.

Also, the speaker, Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Mr Aniekan Bassey, commended Governor Udom Emmanuel for the implementation of the 2019 budget and pledged to ensure a speedy consideration and passage of the 2020 appropriation budget.

Bassey, charged the all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies in the state to ensure they provide all the necessary supporting budget data and stick to the time table that will be announced by the House for their appearance.