Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has proposed a N16.2 billion supplementary budget for the 2018 fiscal year, a 10.79 percent increase to the N150.093 billion budget for the year.
The governor, who made the disclosure after the weekly State Executive Council meeting, at the Government House, Benin, said the budget will be forwarded to the House of Assembly for passage.
He said the supplementary budget will be channelled to education and agriculture, among others, which is expected to build human capital and create wealth for the state and the people.
Noting that the revision is a demonstration of the state’s commitment to open governance and transparency, he said: “The revised/supplementary 2018 budget shows a budget seize of N166.293 billion from the initial N150.093 billion. This represents a 10.79 percent increase.
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“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.”
Obaseki said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in the course of this fiscal year, approved the disbursement of concessional loans (under the Commercial Agriculture Credit (CAC) scheme, to qualifying states. He said Edo State met all qualifying criteria and, thus, received N5 billion from the CBN under CAC scheme.
“The foregoing developments were not anticipated at the time the 2018 budget proposal was approved by executive council in 2017,” he said.
Noting that the state recorded impressive showing in the fiscal year in the area of budget performance, he said: “As of August 2018, the state government achieved over 80 percent budget performance on capital expenditure; this achievement is record-breaking.