Ihedioha presents N197.6bn budget proposal for 2020
Governor Emeka Ihedioha on Wednesday presented 2020 budget proposal of N197.6 billion dubbed “Rebuild Imo Budget One”.
Governor Ihedioha said 2020 budget proposal encapsulated government’s political, economic and social development and strategies aimed at giving the citizenry a sense of belonging.
His words: “The proposal is aimed at restoring confidence in Government and our people, rebuilding our dilapidated infrastructure and putting the state on a pedestal for sustainable economic development. This will focus on road infrastructure, improving on the ‘ease of doing business’ and social infrastructure – education, health services, water, sanitation and the like.”
He said that the 2020 budget is anchored on reports of the Transition Technical Committee as well as recommendations of the various Commissions of Inquiries that have turned in their findings.
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The 2020 budget proposal, he said, would rebuild the state’s dilapidated infrastructure and putting the state on a pedestal for sustainable economic development.
He reiterated that his administration owes it as a duty to ensure the prudent and judicious use of state resources, respect for rule of law, as well as ensuring accountability and transparency in all projects, programmes and activities.
“The 2020 budget is six-pronged, Rebuilding Infrastructure – especially roads and smart electricity sub-sector, Agriculture – by laying the groundwork for sustainable agriculture; Health delivery – with focus on health insurance, primary healthcare and cleaner environment as well as Human Capital Development – especially technological advancement, technical education, Women and Youth empowerment and Ease of Doing Business (EoDB), Job/Wealth Creation and Youth Empowerment.
“Our capital expenditure is N 106,229,450,200 which represents 53.8% of the proposed budget. This is a welcomed development in an era where many other administrations have well below 40% in capital expenditure. It goes without saying that capital expenditure drives development and growth,” the Governor said.
He stated the Internally Generated Revenue is the sine quo non to budget success, saying that the 2020 Budget has a total budgeted recurrent revenue of N140, 330,473,912, representing 71% of the budget
The governor said: “Very much unlike the 2019 budget that has N15, 304,901,626 as personnel cost for Ministries, the proposed 2020 budget has N 8,949,496,411 as its personnel cost which represents a 41.5% reduction in Personnel Cost.”
“The overhead cost in the proposed 2020 budget will relatively increase to N 34,702,219,005 from the N17, 112,658,110 that was approved in the 2019 budget. This is also as a result of increase in government activities, restoration of full workers’ salaries, allowances and the observance of the principle of separation of power between the three arms of government.”
“We also restored the autonomy of the Local Government Administration. However, stringent measures will be taken to cut expenditures by Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs).
“In summary, the recurrent expenditure is N 91,377,822,129. However, this figure includes the repayment to FGN on debts including bailouts funds and rescheduled service of bonds.”
According to him, the Consolidated Revenue Fund Charges (CRFC) will remain the same with the 2019 budget provision at N 16,303,247,101.
He stated that his administration has set out a vision to elevate the state to become one of the top three state economies in the country by 2025 and ranked within Africa’s top ten economies by 2030.
“To this effect, we are leveraging the abundant human capital and natural endowments of the state to build an economy anchored on good governance, accountability, wealth creation, rule of law and sound management of state resources. We have also mapped out a Short-term Plan involving, some quick-wins, particularly restoration of critical infrastructure, public utilities and security. In the same vein, we activated the State Health Insurance Scheme.”
