The governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Udom Emmanuel today, presented a budget estimate of N 597, 800 billion for the 2020 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly.
The 2020 budget is made up of N111.225 billion for recurrent expenditure, N369.642 billion capital expenditure and N116.933 billion consolidated revenue fund.
The total projected recurrent revenue for the year is N381.556 billion as against the approved provision of N374.758 billion in 2019.
In his remarks at the presentation, Emmanuel said the 2020 budget christened, “Budget of Industrialization for Poverty Alleviation phase 11′ was designed as a key milestone in actualizing his administration’s completion agenda.
He said the budget “is predicated on oil benchmark of $55 per barrel at the production rate of N2.18 million barrels per day, with an estimated exchange rate of N305/US dollar in line with the national budget benchmark projections.
“Considering the fact that my completion agenda is predicated primarily on the rapid industrialization of this state, we have christened the 2020 budget ‘The budget of Industrialization for Poverty Alleviation phase 11.’
“It was so named because the state had started witnessing major breakthroughs in industrialization through construction and commissioning of some industries that are currently in full operations or ongoing.
“The 2020 budget aims to support areas that will deliver inclusive growth and massive employment opportunities such as the construction of the Ibom Deep Seaport, completion of Airport projects, purchase of more airplanes and completion of the 21-story Intelligent building among others,” he said.
The governor further said the 2020 appropriation “is predicated on the 8-point agenda that forms the policy thrust of my completion agenda of industrialization, aviation development, security, infrastructure, small and medium scale enterprises, human capacity development, agriculture, and rural and riverine area development.”
The governor expressed the hope that the full implementation of budget would make the state self-reliant and less dependent on statutory allocations from the federal government.
He appealed to the House for speedy approval for the 2020 budget proposal, and support for its implementation, adding,
“We promise to faithfully implement the provisions of the budget for the general good and well-being of our people,” he added.
