Akwa Ibom budgets N671b, Kano proposes N220b for 2019

Governor Udom Emmanuel yesterday presented a budget of N670.72 billion for 2019 fiscal year to the House of Assembly for consideration.

The budget which is N24 billion higher than the 2018 estimates of N646.649 billion is predicated on oil benchmark of $60 per barrel at a production rate of N2.3 million barrels per day with an exchange rate of N305 per US$ in line with the budget benchmark projections.

Christened, ‘Budget of Industrialization for Poverty Alleviation’, it is made up of N97.096 billion as recurrent expenditure and N445.936 billion as capital expenditure while N127.686 billion is budgeted for consolidated revenue fund charges.

The total projected recurrent revenue for 2019 is N374.243billion as against the approved N289.00billion for 2018. The total capital receipt and expenditure for 2019 is estimated at N445.936billion as against the approved provision of N431.141billion for 2018.

According to the governor, the 2019 estimate is intended to build ore industries and attract more direct foreign investment. He said the preparation of the budget was guided by the International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS).

According to Emmanuel, the policy objectives of the 2019 budget include to broaden and diversify the state’s resource base through improvements in the collection of internally generated revenue.

In Kano State, Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje presented a 2019 budget of N219.6 billion to the House of Assembly.

In the proposals tagged “Budget of Sustainable Development”, Ganduje allocated N134,065,152,619 for capital projects while N85,590,065,167 was voted for recurrent expenditure. The proposed appropriation is less than the 2018 budget of N233,828,850.593. Information has zero allocation.

The breakdown further shows that the total projected revenue is put at N156,761,637.947, from which N45billion is expected to be generated internally and over N11.1billion is to be realised from the Federal Government allocation.

Allocations to the sectors show that infrastructure got the highest (N38.31billion), followed by water and rural development with N26.4billion, education (N18billion) and agric (N9.4billion). Health is allocated N2.5billion; environment N3billion; security and justice N2.8billion; commerce N1.6billion; while women and social affairs got N861million, the least allocation.

The Speaker of the house, Kabiru Ibrahim Rurum, promised accelerated passage, after subjecting the budget to public hearing for contribution.