Obaseki proposes N150bn budget for 2017

A total sum of N150,011,831,079 has been proposed by Governor Godwin Obaseki  of   Edo State to the   state House of Assembly, as the 2017 appropriation bill.

Christened,” budget of consolidation and prosperity”, the governor said the budget was 29 per cent above the 2016 budget estimates and is made up of N74,900,297,917 recurrent expenditure and N75,111,533,162 capital expenditure.

The budget, which is the governor’s first since his election in September  2016, has a deficit of N25 billion , which he said, will be funded mainly through external borrowing from the third tranche of the World Bank loan.

Providing details of how the budget will be funded to the lawmakers at the Chief Anthony Enahoro Assembly Complex in Benin City, the state capital, on Monday,   Obaseki said the revenue estimates were based on a $42.0 crude oil benchmark and expectations of improved performance of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)

The governor lamented the current  economic  crisis facing the country,   adding that they were not insurmountable.

He said the policy bedrock of the 2017 budget rests on economic revolution, infrastructural expansion, institutional reform, social welfare enhancement, culture and tourism  as well as  environmental sustainability.

On the policy directions of the budget, he said they were largely informed by “my interactions with Edo people during my campaign which was validated in a strategy dialogue comprising political, religious and traditional leaders, professionals, civil society, women and youth groups”.

Meanwhile, the governor has said that his electioneering promise of creating 200,000 jobs within four years will be achieved through series of outlined job creation programmes such as partnership with the sector investors to recruit and offer training to out-growers and anchor farmers in specific crops.