By CHARLES IWUOHA

Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, on Wednesday presented the 2022 Appropriation Bill of N145,410,597.49 to the State House of Assembly.

Tagged “Budget of Latter Rain”, the governor said major revenue to finance the budget is expected to come from the Federal Allocation while other revenue are expected to come from other revenue heads.

The Governor said the 2022 estimates represents an increase of 46.65% over the revised budget of N99.157.171.65.

He explained that the increase is due to the carryover of a large part of the expected receipts in the 2021 fiscal year to the next fiscal year.

Among such carry overs, he noted, is the federal government of Nigeria’s bridging finance of N18.225bn which he said is given to each of the 37 States in the country.

“We expect N4.315bn from TETFund for our tertiary institutions, UBEB growth of over N1.2bn, SFTAS of N16.727bn and Domestic Loan of N7bn,” Umahi told the lawmakers.

He revealed that the proposed capital expenditure of the budget is N89.763.717.205 representing 61.73 percent while recurrent expenditure is proposed to be N55.646.880.517.69 or 38 27 percent of reg total budget.

“This proportion of 61 73peecent of capital to 38.27 percent recurrent is structured bearing in mind our determination to deepen our capital projects development especially the completion of ongoing projects,” he said.

A breakdown shows that education, works and infrastructural development for concession ministries got the highest chunk of the budget.

The Education ministry is to gulp N24,397,399, 015.78 covering 16.78 percent of the budget.

While the Ministry of Infrastructural Development for Concession is to get N17, 498,56,922.44 covering 12.03percent, the Ministry of Works and Transport is projected to get N24, 335, 057, 558.09 which is 16.74 percent of the budget.

The Ministry of Agriculture is to get N3,425,238,354.88 which is 2.38 percent of the 2022 budget sum.

Umahi noted that the state government has profiled 200 youths and women from each local government area to access the N3bn #Endsars empowerment programme from January, 2022.

”In 2022, we are going to pursue the stoppage of leakages and illegal revenue collections. We shall promote ease of doing business and automate our revenue collection processes to prevent multiple taxes,” Umahi said.

He added that the state government is going to come up with more sophisticated strategies to generate more revenue for the benefit of the state.

He expressed hope that the ongoing dualization of the Abakaliki to Afikpo and Abakaliki to Enugu roads will achieve over 80 percent completion before the end of 2022.

The Governor warned that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) disturbances in Ebonyi state University must stop, adding that the Union cannot be allowed to hold the institution and state government or ransom”l.

“After seven days if they are unable to resolve the problem, I will approach the court to get the powers to dissolve them,” he vowed.

Umahi noted that the state has complied with the issue of autonomy of the state House of Assembly and Judiciary.

“Every local government fund now goes straight to the local government accounts. The decide what they do with their money,” he said.

He said that apart from on facilities which the state gets like other states, his administration will not owe any commercial loan as a state by the time he leaves office in 2023.

The Leader of the House, Victor Chukwu (Ezza North West) moved a motion for first reading of the budget which was seconded by Chukwuma Igwe (Onicha West).

The Speaker, Francis Nwifuru, put the motion to vote and it was passed without any opposition.

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