Obaseki Presents N146 billion 2018 Budget

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State on Wednesday presented the 2018 Appropriation Bill and budget estimates of N146billion to the state House of Assembly for consideration.

The budget christened ‘The Budget of Growth’ is made up of N66,797,615,689 for recurrent and N79,862,214,754 as capital expenditure.

Making the presentation, Obaseki assured the assembly of his administration readiness to consolidate on the infrastructural and socio-economic gains of the outgoing year 2017.

He commended the assembly Speaker and members for their unprecedented support through their timely responses to request for legislations and other forms of support to the executive arm of government.

According to the governor, “We have a budget size of N146, 659,830,444 billion, which is a 15 percent nominal increase over the 2017 budget.

He explained that the “revenue estimates for the budget are based on a $45 benchmark for crude oil and average daily production of 2.3 million barrels per day as well as an increase in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), as a result of reforms in revenue collection.”

Obaseki stated that the 2018 budget would build on the recovery witnessed in 2017, and stressed that “We intend to revitalise the state economy by increasing capital spending, hence, we envisage a capital/recurrent expenditure ratio of (54:46percent) which highlights our vision to grow with cash receipts capped at N120,099,830,443.52 to be sourced from statutory allocation, IGR and grants."

Analysing the budget estimates, the governor said: “A larger part of the 2018 budget will be devoted to the development of physical and social infrastructure across the state to improve the standard of living of Edo State people

“Our government will consolidate on the gains we have made in wooing investors to the state. Alaghodaro Investment Summit was a huge success and I must thank the Speaker and members of the state assembly for your support for the laudable initiative. We have been bombarded by enquiries from all over the world after the investment summit as investors have come to accept that Edo State is indeed ready for business. This budget is expected to drive growth and progress in all sectors of the state.”

The priority areas in the proposed 2018 capital expenditure framework, he explained “are social and physical infrastructure for which we have earmarked N51 billion. We will take advantage of the dry season to reconstruct several bad roads and build  new ones across the state to boost socio-economic activities. We have already commenced the procurement process for the roads through advertisements in major national newspapers.”