By Ikugbadi Oluwasegun
Governor Godwin Obaseki on Tuesday was at the hallowed chamber of Edo State House of Assembly for a budget presentation christened 325.5bn budget Home-Run, finishing strong 2024.
Obaseki said it was made up of N178 billion capital expenditure and N146 billion recurrent expenditure.
The budget places more emphasis on growth, completion of ongoing projects, workers’ welfare, employment enablers, road infrastructure, health, education, and other top priorities.
He said that the budget was slightly higher than that of 2023 which was N321.4 billion.
Obaseki said that the total projected revenue for 2024 was N303 billion, consisting of N55 billion statutory allocations, VAT N38 billion, Capital receipts of N40 billion, IGR N72 billion and N10 billion from grants.
He added that the balance would be sourced from development financing and financial institutions.
Obaseki stated that the revenue estimate for the budget was based on a 65 dollars per barrel benchmark for crude oil and average daily production of 1.6m barrels per day as well as an increase in IGR to N72 billion.
‘’A total of 25 per cent of the total budget (N85 billion) would be allocated to areas that would stimulate growth and employment while 19 percent (N62.8 billion) would be allocated to infrastructure, particularly roads.
‘’Others are, 10 per cent (N33.6) allocated to health, 16 per cent to other government activities, 10 percent of the total budget (32.2 billion) allocated to education, seven per cent (N21 billion) allocated to building and Social welfare five per cent (N16 billion).”
‘’Two per cent each was also allocated to climate and environment issues, electricity, youths and agriculture.
The budget is also targeted at expanding the gains of the past 7 years for maximum socioeconomic benefits of our people.
With the support of the State House of Assembly, we have delivered key campaign promises in education, healthcare delivery, sports, poverty reduction, gender mainstreaming, youth and women empowerment, workers’ welfare and infrastructure.
In the ongoing fiscal year, part of the budget is to expand economic opportunities for the Edo people.” He added.