Obiano presents N143.7 bn budget proposal for 2021

Gov. Willie Obiano of Anambra on Tuesday presented a budget proposal of N143.7 billion to the State House of Assembly for approval.

Obiano, who tagged the appropriation bill “Budget of Economic Recovery and Consolidation,” said that it would help sustain past performance and ensure the state maintained it status as a business hub and investment destination.

According to Obiano, a total of N86.9 billion will be spent on capital expenditure, translating to 60.5 per cent of the budget, while N56.8 billion will go to recurrent expenditure, translating to 39.5 per cent of the budget.

He said the estimate was premised on the crude oil price benchmark of $35 per barrel.

Obiano said that expected revenue from Value Added Tax was N20.8 billion, while other capital receipts would be N20.9 billion.

The governor said that N36.6 billion would be raised from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

On personnel expenditure, Obiano said that N17.6 billion would be spent as salaries and wages, N16.2 billion would be spent on group life insurance, loan, pensions and gratuities of retirees, while N22.9 billion would be spent on overheads.

He said that N11.0 billion was provided for domestic debt financing, comprising of single digit concessionary programme lending for interventions in healthcare, social investments, agriculture, manufacturing and youth entrepreneurship.

The budget breakdown revealed that construction of roads, bridge works and infrastructure had the highest allocation of N32 billion followed by healthcare which had N6.8 billion.

Education and agriculture were allocated N5.0 billion and N2.5 billion respectively, while community social development projects got N1.1 billion.

Water resources and public utilities got N3.77 billion while environment got N3.4 billion and mall and medium enterprises development N2 billion.

Obiano said “we have set aside the sum of N200 million for payment as compensations to our people who have proven cases of gross human rights violations, torture and death from the activities of the defunct SARS in the state.

“Over 70 per cent of my appointees are youths, therefore, we have allocated the sum of N5.4 billion to youth entrepreneurship and empowerment programmes.

“We have also allocated N1.1 billion to empower youths through vocational, agricultural and artisan training programmes as well as N120 million for the establishment of creative centres, innovation hubs and ICT related projects.

“Meanwhile, N5.8 billion has been earmarked for the completion of the proposed Anambra International Airport, N500 million for the completion of the International Conference Centre, Awka.

“This budget seeks to entrench a new watershed in the development aspirations of the state. We hope, therefore, that it will be given a speedy consideration and passage to ensure a sustained and steady advancement of our state.’’

Receiving the budget, the Speaker, State House of Assembly, Mr Uche Okafor, said the presentation was necessary to obtain legislative consent for the amount of money to be spent in the coming financial year.

He promised that the Assembly would continue to work in synergy with the executive for the good of the people and the development of the state.

It was reported that Obiano presented a budget estimate of N101.4 billion for 2016, N115.5 billion for 2017, N166.9bn for 2018, N157.1bn for the 2019 and N137.1 billion for 2020 fiscal year, but which was later revised to N114.9 billion.

The budget revision became necessary following the COVID-19 pandemic which brought about a fall in revenue and the national and state-wide lockdown of businesses.