Gov. Udom budgets N597.8bn for 2020 fiscal year

Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom state on Tuesday presented a budget outlay of N597.8 billion to the state House of Assembly for the 2020 fiscal year.

The budget is made up of N111.225 billion for recurrent expenditure, N369.642 billion for capital expenditure while consolidated revenue fund charges stood at N116.933 billion.

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The budgetary estimates represent a decrease of about N75.185 billion from the 2019 budgetary provision of N672. 985 billion.

Gov. Udom said the total projected recurrent revenue for the state is estimated at N381.556 billion as against the approved provision of N374.758 billion in 2019 with N52.556 billion expected from internally generated revenue, N52 billion from statutory allocation, N255 billion from derivation fund while N2 billion and N20 billion respectively, are expected from retained revenue from parastatals and Valued Added Tax (VAT) respectively.

Christened “budget of industrialization for poverty alleviation phase 11,” the governor said the budget was designed as a key milestone in actualizing his administration’s completion agenda.

He noted that the 2020 budget is predicated on an oil benchmark of $55 per barrel at a production rate of 2.18 million barrels per day, with an estimated exchange rate of N305/US dollar in line with the national budget benchmark projections.

“Considering the fact that my completion agenda is predicated primarily on the rapid industrialization of this state, it was so named because the state has started witnessing major breakthroughs in industrialization through construction and commissioning of some industries that are currently in full operation or ongoing.

“The 2020 budget aims to support areas that will deliver inclusive growth and massive employment opportunities such as the construction of the Ibom Deep Seaport, completion of the airport project, purchase of more airplanes and competition of the 21-storey intelligent building among others,” the governor said.

He further said that the budget is predicated on the eight-point agenda that forms the policy thrust of his completion agenda on industrialization, aviation development, security, infrastructure, small and medium scale enterprises, human capacity development, agriculture and rural and riverine area development.

The governor appealed to the state House of Assembly to speedily approve the 2020 budget proposal and support its implementation, adding that “we promise to faithfully implement the provisions of the budget for the general good and well-being of our people.”

In his remarks, Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Mr. Aniekan Bassey, who pledged to collaborate with the executive, assured the governor that the assembly would ensure the speedy passage of the budget proposal to enable him achieve his completion agenda.