Obaseki presents N177bn budget for 2020

Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo on Wednesday presented a budget of N177 billion for 2020 to the state House of Assembly for approval.

Our correspondent reports that the budget is 3.34 per cent higher than the 2019 figure of N175 billion.

The budget has N85 billion recurrent expenditure and N92 billion capital expenditure.

Obaseki said the budget was to consolidate and complete all ongoing projects in the state.

“The projected revenue for 2020 is estimated at N145 billion consisting of N68 billion statutory allocation, N14.5billion VAT, N40.3 billion Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), 15.3billion grants.

“The balance of N32billion is to be sourced from development financing.

“We have based the budget on a 60 dollar per barrel of oil, and an average of 3.2 million barrel per day, while IGR is expected to rise with our reforms,” he said.

Some of the allocations in the budget include N3billion for hosting of the National Sports Festival and Female U-20 World Cup.
N8 billion for development of Colleges of Education campuses in Afuze and Abudu, as well as extending Edo best to Junior Secondary Schools across the state, while Primary Health care reforms got N1billion.

On workers’ welfare, the governor said there would be an expected increase in personnel cost due to implementation of new Minimum Wage.

According to Obaseki, government will not undertake new project in 2020.

“Rather, we will ensure completion of all ongoing projects in the state,” he said.