Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State on Friday presented a budget estimate of N178.136bn to the State House of Assembly for 2020 fiscal year.

Christened “BUDGET OF GROWTH, CONSOLIDATION AND TRANSFORMATION”, the governor promised that the state government has made provisions in the budget for the payment of the new minimum wage next year.

“Our commitment towards minimum wage for our Civil servants is unwavering. We shall prioritize funding on the minimum wage and also introduce incentive-based programmes to motivate and reward our civil servants especially our teachers,” he said

He noted that a total of N46.080bn has been earmarked for recurrent expenditure while capital expenditure will gulp N132.056bn.

This means that capital expenditure will get a lion share of 74.13 percent of the budget leaving recurrent expenditure with 25.87 percent.

The governor explained that spending on capital budget has been prioritized in favour of critical on-going projects.

“A look at the budget proposal shows that Health, Education, Works, Security, Infrastructure, Agriculture and Human Capital Development and Commerce and Industry will be accorded priority in this 2020 budget,” Umahi said

According to the Governor, “Works and Infrastructure for Concession will receive a total of Fifty Four Billion, One Hundred and Twenty Five Million and Eighty Three Thousand, Four Hundred and Sixty Eight Naira, Forty Eight Kobo (N54,125,083,468.48) or 30.38% of the total budget sum.

“Education will receive a total of Twenty Seven Billion, and Ninety Seven Million, Two Hundred and Sixty Two Thousand, Three Hundred and Eighty Eight Naira Sixty Nine Kobo (N27,097,262,388.69) or 15.21% of the total budget sum.

“Similarly, Health will receive a total of Fifteen Billion, Four Hundred and Sixty-Six Million, Five Hundred and Forty One Thousand Six Hundred and Three Naira Eighty Five Kobo (N15,466,541,603.85) or 8.68% of the total budget.

“Human Capital Development and Commerce and Industry will jointly receive the sum of Eight Billion and Sixteen Million, Eighty Eight Thousand Three Hundred and Twenty Four Naira Seventy (N 8,016,088,324.70) or 4.50% of the total sum.

“Agriculture will receive Three Billion, Seven Hundred and Sixty Nine Million, Seven Hundred and Forty Two Thousand, Seven Hundred and Ten Naira Sixty Five (N3,769,742,710.65) or 2.13% of the budget.

“Security will receive Two Billion, Six Hundred and Seventy five Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira (N 2,675,500,000) or 1.5% of the budget sum, making a total of One Hundred and Eleven Billion, One Hundred and Fifty Million, Two Hundred and Eighteen Thousand Four Hundred and Ninety Six Naira Thirty Seven Kobo (N 111,150,218,496.37) or 62.40% of the budget sum allocated to the 6 critical sub-sectors.”

Governor Umahi said that the state government will inject N7.6 billion in construction and renovation of schools, across 171 wards of the state, equip schools and construct modern library and e-learning facilities for students.

“We shall embark on comprehensive training and retraining of teachers to enhance their knowledge and teaching skills. The four vocational institutes namely: The King David Gifted Children Academy, Vocational College, Vocational Agric Training Institute and The Tehilla Adult Education School shall be adequately funded and they shall be a spring board for economic development in the state,” the Governor said.

Umahi said his administration is determined, through its zero oil initiative, to promote self reliance and robust economy through socioeconomic diversification that will reduce reliance on federal allocations.

This, he said, will encourage local content in the state's economy and ultimately increase the income base through internally generated revenue

On health, Umahi said: “In our bid to bequeath a functional and effective health care and drive a preventive and rural based health care system, we are building a world class State University Teaching Hospital. Construction work has started, but we shall increase funding this coming year.

“The 13 General Hospitals and 178 Primary Health Care Centres shall receive increased funding. We shall increase our commitment on the implementation of the Health Insurance Scheme and make it more beneficial to our civil servants.”

On Works and Infrastructure the Governor said his government will inject funds in the ongoing dualization of two federal highways in the state which are the Abakaliki-Enugu road and Abakaliki-Afikpo road.

He reiterated the commitment of his administration to construct eight more flyovers adding that some work hard already commenced on some of them.

The Governor promised increased funding to complete on-going flyover construction works at Ezzamgbo junction, Uburu College of Medicine junction and Abaomege which have reached advanced stage.

“We shall construct more flyovers in major junctions including Waterworks, Vanco, Onueke, Amasiri, Uburu and Nkalagu junctions.

“We shall inject more funds to the Airport and stadium projects which we have already started,” he said.

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