Edo State House of Assembly has passed into law a N10,874,000,000 Supplementary Budget for the 2018 fiscal year, and not ‘N160 billion extra budget’ as erroneously reported by some newspapers yesterday.
With the N10,874,000,000 supplementary budget passed into law by the Edo State legislature, yesterday, the total budget size of the state for 2018 stands at N160,967,330,443.52, being the combined figures of the initial N150.093 billion passed and signed into law last year, by Governor Godwin Obaseki, and the N10,874,000,000 passed into law on Monday.
Obaseki, on Wednesday, October 24, announced the decision of the state Executive Council to review the 2018 budget upward.
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He assured that the supplementary budget will be channelled to education, agriculture, building human capital and creating wealth for the state and the people, adding that the revision is a demonstration of the state’s commitment to open governance and transparency.
He said: “In the course of the 2018 fiscal year, Mr. President approved the disbursement of the final tranche of refunds from Paris/London Club of borrowers to states and local governments (Edo State’s share of this refund amounts to N5 billion).
“Mr. President further approved the application of a portion of this refund to clear the arrears of state government’s cash contribution for Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) grants, resulting in a N3 billion UBEC grant in favour of Edo State.”
