TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt

Rivers State House of Assembly has approved and passed into law N300,370,357,710.30. as the revised estimate for the service of the state for the year 2020.

The State 2020 budget was reviewed from N530 billion to N300 billion ,with a total capital expenditure of N171 billion and N129 billion as recurrent expenditure .

It was passed yesterday, following the report of the House Committee on Budget and Appropriation which reduced the earlier N530 billion budget of the state based on the impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on the programmes and policies of state.

The House of Assembly had commissioned the committee led by Enemi George, to carry out a review on the state budget following the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the economy.

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Presenting the report, George noted that the deductions were mainly on the Ministries of Works and Education.

Debating on the matter, Martins Amaewhule, the Majority Leader of the House, urged the lawmakers to allow the appropriation law to provide high expenditure on the capital.

Speaker of the House, Ikuinyi-Owaji Ibani, subjected the decision on the report of the committee to voting and announced that 23 lawmakers voted in favour of the approval of N300 billion as the revised budget for the state.

Ibani noted that provisional sum of N2.3 billion was for public health emergency to fund and combat COVID-19 in the state.