Umahi Presents N145b Budget Estimate For 2022 Fiscal Year.
Ebonyi state Governor, Chief David Umahi has presented a total Budget Estimate of N145,410,597,723.49bn appropriation bill to the state House of Assembly for the 2022 fiscal year.
The bill which was tagged “Budget of Latter Rain”, represents an increase of 46.65% over the 2021 revised approved budget.
The 2021 revised approved budget is N199, 157,171,152.65 billion naira.
The governor proposed N89,763,717,205 as Capital expenditure representing 61.73% of the total budget while the Recurrent expenditure is proposed to be N55, 646, 880, 517.69 representing 38.27% of the total budget.
He said that the proportion of 61.73% Capital to 38.27% Recurrent (ratio of 1.6 to 1) is structured bearing in mind our determination to deepen our capital projects development especially the completion of ongoing projects,” the Governor explained.
Umahi further noted that the Capital Expenditure increased by 53.56% from the 2021 Capital Budget while the 2022 recurrent budget is 36.72%, higher than the 2021 budget
He said that the 46.65% increase of the 2022 budget over the 2021 revised budget was due to the carryover of a large part of the expected receipt in the 2031 fiscal year to the next fiscal year.
Umahi listed the expected receipts in 2022 fiscal year to include, “₦4,315,000,000.00 from TETFund for tertiary institutions; UBEB growth of over ₦1,200,000,000.00 and SFTAS of ₦16,727,700,000.00).
Others are: World Bank COVID-19 grants of ₦1,000,000,000.00; Federal Government of Nigeria bridging finance of ₦18,225,336,103.00 given to each of the 36 States in Nigeria, and Domestic Loan of ₦7,000,000,000.00 to fund 2022 budget deficit.“
In our determination to complete our projects,tackle education and human capital development and engage our people through agriculture and other entrepreneurship programmes, we have prioritized the following sub-sectors: Education, Works, Infrastructure, Agriculture, Human Capital Development and Health.
“These Six critical sub-sectors got a total sum of Seventy Seven Billion, Four Hundred and Seventy Million, Four Hundred and Thirty-Three Thousand, Seven Hundred and Eighty-One Naira, Thirteen Kobo (N77,470, 433,781.13) covering 53.28% while other sub-sectors have a total sum of Sixty Seven Billion, Nine Hundred and Forty Million, One Hundred and Sixty Three Thousand, Nine Hundred and Ninety-One Naira, Fifty-Six Kobo (N67,940,163,991.56) covering 46.72% of the Budget Sum,” Umahi added e
The Ministry of Education got N24,397,499,015.78 covering 16.78% of the total budget sum while the Ministry of Works got N24,335,057,558.09 which is 16.74% of the Budget Sum; implying that the two Ministries got the larger chunks of the budget sum.
The Ministry of Infrastructural Development for Concession is having the Sum of N17,498,506,922.44 covering 12.03%; the Ministry of Human Capital Development and Monitoring got N3,612,684,038.76 which is 2.48%, while the Ministry of Health got N7,626,686,246.07 only covering 5.24%, and the Ministry of Agriculture which got N3,425,238,354.88) covering 2.38% of the 2022 budget sum.
The Governor further disclosed that his administration would pay more attention to the following: giving employment and empowerment to the people, infrastructural intervention in both Ebonyi State College of Education and Ebonyi State University to raise the quality of learning; establishment of Aeronautical Engineering University and the University of ICT, Science and Technology and stoppage of leakages and illegal revenue collections, among others.
The Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, in his speech, lauded the leadership ingenuity of Governor Umahi and assured that the budget proposal would be given speedy passage.
The budget proposal passed first and second reading in the presence of the Governor before the House was adjourned to a later date