Ebonyi State governor, David Umahi on Tuesday presented to the state house of assembly for approval, the 2021 proposed budget tagged: Budget of Stabilization and Consolidation in a Recession in the sum of N122,852,045,222.49.
With N49.141bn which is 40% of the total budget projected for the recurrent expenditure and the amount is about N15.11bn above the projected recurrent expenditure by 2020 Dec. 31st.
The governor noted that the major increase in recurrent expenditure is from social sector especially health and education which account for over 34.7% of the total budget.
Adding; “Our Capital expenditure estimate this year is N73.711bn which is 60% of our total budget and N5.95bn over the projected actual amount for 2020 by Dec. 31st. This increase in the amount is due to our 2021 target of completing most of our on-going projects.
Umahi further hinted that their major revenue is expected to come from Federation Account estimated at about N52bn or 42.33% of the budget, while other revenue heads like IGR, sales of international market stores, land proceeds, sales of malls, other receipts among others will account for the balance of N57.994bn or 47.53% of total budget.
Stating; ” We are projecting to increase our IGR from projected N10,569,074,353.56 in 2020 budget to N12,858,297,657.83 or 10.47% of our total expected revenue.
“In 2020, our projected actual revenue receipts by Dec, 31st 2020 is N122,138,799,059.13 which is 92.53% performance. We are therefore staying on side of what is possible by our 2021 budget of N122,852,045,222.49 which is just 0.6% higher than our projected 2020 budget performance.
He said his government’s major focus in 2021 budget is Education, which has about 19.47% of the total budget or N23,913,778,152.08. followed by Ministry of Health and Health related Programes with the sum of N18,706,279,929.28 or 15.23% of the total budget earmarked for it, as his government plans to complete the EBSU Medical School and the 14 General Hospitals in the state.
Adding; “the issue of Covid-19 programme will be pursued vigorously especially with the ugly trend of likely second wave showing up. We will partner with FGN for the vaccination of our people against Covid-19 in 2021. We will step up the health of our citizens to the next level”.
For Ministry of Infrastructure Development for Concession 11.41% of the total budget was budgeted, while Ministry of Works and Transport got 7.49% of the budget and Human Capital Development and Empowerment got 2.65% of the budget.
“For Human Capital Development and Empowerment, We have a budget of N3,259,779,838.94 or 2.65% of the total budget. Out of this amount, we intend to deploy N3bn as ENDSARS empowerment programme for our youths and women. This programme has commenced with collation of names and their proposals of their choices of businesses. We intend to reach out to about 250 persons with best proposals per Local Government Area with N1m per person (per business). We encourage the Ministry to partner with Bank of Industry to increase the participants scope of businesses and capital involved. With expected 80% success of this program. We believe that Ebonyi will be more focused on business than in politics. This programme is non-political.
“We have budgeted the sum of N18,706,279,929.28 or 15.23% of our total budget for Health related matters. In 2021, we intend to complete the EBSU Medical School and deploy the school. We will complete the 14 General Hospitals.
“While In 2021, we have budgeted 19.47% of our total budget or N23,913,778,152.08 to Education. Our Government believes that the best thing to give to the society is education. We will ensure that in 2021, no child of Ebonyi State is without education. We will pursue the training of our teachers with more incentives. We will continue to improve on the quality of our schools infrastructure and learning materials. We will conduct a visitation programme to our State University and College of Education with the sole aim of improving the quality of education and the welfare of staff and students. Education in 2021 has the highest budget of the State.
“Ministry of Works and Transport has a budget of N9,206,693,563.56 or 7.49% of the total budget. We intend to complete all on-going projects before starting new ones. The completion of flyovers bridges, dualization of Abakaliki to Enugu and Abakaliki to Afikpo, the Iyere flyover bridge in Afikpo South LGA, the completion of the remaining 16km out of 31km of Ntezi Agba Isu road in Ishielu and Onicha LGAs will be our focus. All the on-going projects in all the LGAs will be completed in 2021.
” Under the Ministry of Infrastructure Development for Concession, we are developing the airport and few other infrastructures. We have opened bids for the airport equipment and we hope to mobilize the contractor this December 2021. Other major works of the airport that will be completed in 2021 include the earth works, parks, terminal building, and concrete works of the 4km by 65m of the runway. We hope to open the airport for business latest by June 2022. The budget here is therefore N14,012,217,549.64 or 11.41% of the total budget, he explained.