Gov. Umahi signs revised 2020 budget of N132 B into law.

Ebonyi state Governor Chief David Umahi has signed into law the revised 2020 budget of N132,002,391,626.66.with a percentage decrease of 25.9%.

Commissioner for Finance, Orlando Nweze, explained that the downward revision of the budget became necessary due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected economic productivity.

Orlando said the state aligned itself with the Federal expected Gross Domestic Product, GDP of -4.42% and inflation rate of 14.13%. In producing the budget.

A breakdown of the budget shows for recurrent expenditure, Personnel cost reduced by 14.21% from N18.158B to N15.577B.

Also, overhead cost increased by 23.43% from N22.922B to N28.293B, recurrent contingency was reduced by 80% from N5B to N1B.

For capital expenditure, there was a 33% reduction in Capital Expenditure from N127.056B to N85.132B and capital contingency was reduced by 60% from N5B to N2B.

Umahi, while signing the budget, said the state was focusing much on agriculture to recover from the pandemic.

"The Personnel cost reduced by 14.21% from N18.158B to N15.577B while Overhead Cost increased by 23.43% from N22.922B to N28.293B and Recurrent contingency was reduced by 80% from N5B to N1B.

" In Capital Expenditure there was a 33% reduction in Capital Expenditure from N127.056B to N85.132B and Capital contingency was reduced by 60% from N5B to N2B.

"In our adjustments, we had reduced and in some cases removed various items from different MDAs in the approved 2020 budget to meet up with the expected revenue.