Abia Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, has presented the 2020 Budget estimate of N136,617,847,316 to the state House of Assembly for their consideration.
The draft budget is made up of N66,802,247,316 for Recurrent Expenditure, while N69,815,600,000 is for Capital Expenditure.
The recurrent expenditure represents 48.90 percent of the total budget while the capital expenditure represents 51.10 percent of the budget.
Presenting the Abia State 2020-2022 Medium Term Draft Estimates christened: “Budget Of Economic Repositioning” to the legislators, Ikpeazu said the budget outlay is slightly less than the N140,944,885,770 for 2019. This moderate decrease, according to the Governor is occasioned by the resolve of his administration to formulate a realistic budget, while working hard to improve revenue generation and apply prudent expenditure approach.
He said with the economic challenges, his government is determined to reposition the state on a new foundation for growth, reiterating that Abia keyed into the State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability as well as the other partnership Initiatives with the aim of enhancing efficiency in its financial processes and would continue to sharpen the process of participatory budgeting with the involvement of communities, civil society groups, private sector agencies and other stakeholders.
The Governor informed that the draft estimates are intended to strategically strengthen his achievements in such areas as creating conducive environment for local and foreign investors, providing opportunities for human capital development, revitalizing social services as well as building critical infrastructure for sustainable development, stressing: “Our watchword in the 2020 budget implementation shall be Prudence in State Resource Management”.
He added: “In preparing this 2020-2022 Multi-year Budget, consideration was given to effective and efficient resource allocation and utilization. Certain factors were considered including; prioritization of peoples’ needs, identification and harmonization of revenue generating windows, re-jigging of agencies, among others.”
He maintained that in the 2020 fiscal year, “we shall further strengthen governance with renewed commitment to people’s well being through intense citizens engagement and Community Needs Identification Initiative (CNII) in project selection to meet the Community Charter of Demand (CCD).”