Ikpeazu presents N102.55b 2017 appropriation bill

Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, has presented a budget estimate of N102.55 billion to the state House of Assembly for the 2017 fiscal year.

The budget proposal, which is 3.14 percent less than last year’s N106 billion, and christened: “Budget of Prudence and Self-Reliance,” comprises N57.4 billion Recurrent Expenditure and N45.2 billion Capital Expenditure.

This shows that states’ priority still remains with overheads and personnel costs rather than infrastructure development that will boost its economic development.

The Governor, while reading out the budget estimates to members of the State House of Assembly, presided over by the newly sworn-in Speaker, Chikwendu Kanu, put the revenue projections from external sources at N61.2billion.

He explained that the sum will accrue to the state from the Statutory Allocations from the Federation Account, while internal receipts will be N22 billion.

According to Ikpeazu, notwithstanding the bleak economic situation in the country, efforts will be to intensify improvement in the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR).

He added that “the strategy of Direct Bank lodgement of electronic collection system through the banks to capture and confirm all payments made to the state is paying off and we are going to consolidate on that.”

He said the 2017 budget was packaged with the right policy formation, fiscal planning, budget analysis, accountability and routine financial, adding that the state is committed to fiscal management process in line with international best practices.

In his remarks, the Speaker pledged that the lawmakers will speedily attend to the bill with a view to its early passage, and cooperate with the executive for the overall development of the state.