Obiano presents N141.9 bn budget for Anambra for 2022

Gov. Willie Obiano of Anambra on Thursday presented a budget of N141.9 billion for 2022 to the State House of Assembly for approval.

Obiano, who tagged the budget “Continuity, Sustainability and Development of a New Anambra”, said that it would help to sustain his achievements in the last seven years and ensure that the state maintained it status as a business hub and investment destination.

He said that the budget was made up of N81 billion capital expenditure, translating to 57 per cent and N60.9 billion recurrent expenditure, translating to 43 per cent.

The governor said the budget was premised on the crude oil price benchmark of 50 dollars per barrel.

Obiano said that the expected revenue from Value Added Tax was N19.8 billion, while other capital receipts would be N23.38 billion.

He said that N40.36 billion was expected to be generated through Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

Obiano said that N21.67billion would be spent as salaries and wages, while N18.3 billion would be spent on group life insurance, loan, pensions and gratuities of retirees, while N23.78 billion would be spent on overheads.

He said that N13.4 billion was allocation for domestic debt financing, comprising of single-digit concessionary programme lending for interventions in healthcare, social investments, agriculture, manufacturing and youth entrepreneurship.

It was reported that the breakdown indicated that road, works and infrastructure has the highest allocation of N23 billion, followed by healthcare with N5.8 billion.

The Environment and education sectors were allocated N3.42 billion and N3.23 billion respectively, while agriculture and youth empowerment and the creative economy got N3 billion and N2.08 billion respectively.

Water resources and public utilities got N2.1 billion while community social development projects got N1.4 billion and medium enterprises development N1billion.

Other allocations included N10 billion for the completion of the Anambra International Cargo Airport, N2.8 billion for the completion of the International Convention Centre, Awka and 700 million for the completion of Awka City stadium.

“The 2022 budget will be the last annual budget of this administration. The budget seeks to consolidate and sustain the development aspirations of Anambra.

“It is our hope, that it will be given speedy consideration and passage to ensure a steady advancement of our dear state,” Obiano said.

Receiving the budget, the Speaker, Mr Uche Okafor, expressed readiness to continue to partner with the executive for peoples oriented projects in the state.

“As this is the final lap in the budgetary cycle of this administration, I assure Your Excellency that the House will give this budget expeditious consideration and will pass it as soon as possible,” he said.

It was reported that Obiano had presented a budget of N101.4 billion in 2016, N115.5 billion in 2017, N166.9billion in 2018, N157.1billion in 2019 and N137.1 billion in 2020, although it was later revised to N114.9 billion due to COVID-19 pandemic.

He also presented N143.7 billion budget for 2021.