Delta State Government has proposed a total budget
estimate of N389 billion for the 2020 fiscal year.
The proposed figure is made up of N217 billion
capital expenditure and N171 billion for recurrent expenditure, indicating that
the state government would spend more on capital projects than recurrent for
the financial year.
The approved estimates are expected to be presented
to the state House of Assembly by the state Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, as the
state 2020 Appropriation Bill soon.
The figure, which was announced to journalists after
the State Executive Council meeting on Wednesday in Asaba, by the state Commissioner
for Economic Planning, Mr. Barry Gbe, is N1 billion shy of the current 2019 budget
of N390 billion.
Flanked by the state Commissioner for Information,
Mr. Charles Aniagwu, and the Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Mr. Olisa Ifeajika,
the economic planning commissioner said the 2020 budget proposal was based on
his ministry's rigorously fashioned Fiscal Strategy Paper, which he said was
influenced by the macro-economic indices dictated at the federal level.
The federal government has set a standard for next
year's financial projections with an oil benchmark of $57 per barrel and a N305
to a dollar exchange rate benchmark, and the federating states are expected to
follow suit, he explained.
The Information Commissioner, Aniagwu, also
disclosed that the state exco approved Ifechukwude Okonjo, third son of the
late Prof Chukuka Benjamin Okonjo, as the authentic new monarch (Obi) of
Ogwashi-Uku kingdom.
Asked if the state government was aware that
another prince, Nathan Okonjo, is also laying claim to the Ogwashi-Uku stool,
he said the state executive council gave the approval based on “the fact that
the body of traditional rulers in Aniocha South and the chairman of the local
government area have thrown their weight behind the installation on September
13, 2019, by the Ogwashi-Uku kingmakers.
''There is no court action or injunction that we
know of challenging the installation of Prince Ifechukwude Okonjo as the
Ogwashi-Uku monarch.”
Prince Nathan Okonjo, who has also been recently
installed as Obi of Ogwashi-Uku in another ceremony, had last month applied to
the Delta State Government for due recognition and presentation of a staff of
office as the new monarch of the kingdom.
Similarly, the state exco has approved Kolokowei
Ngolo I as Pere of Ogbolubiri-Mein Kingdom in Burutu Local Government Area of
the state.
Meanwhile, the state exco has approved the
construction of the 2.2 kilometre Owa Alero-Owanta-Alisime Road in Ika
North-East LGA at a cost of N600.49 million while the concentric roads off
Queen Street in Agbor totaling about N3.5 kilometre would be constructed at the
cost of N1.3 billion.
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