Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, has presented a budget of N101.1 billion to the State House of Assembly for the 2016 fiscal year.
The appropriation bill, tagged “Budget of Divine Actualisation” set aside N62.3 billion for capital expenditure, representing 61.68 % of the budget outlay, while N39 billion was set aside for recurrent expenditure, being 38 % of the total estimate.
The total estimate of about N101.1b is slightly above that of 2015, which was N96.52bn.
The economic sector got the lion share of N37 billion, which the governor said would be committed on roads, water, electricity, agriculture, education, commerce and industrial sectors.
The Ministry of Works got the highest allocation, within the economic sector, with N25 billion, representing 67.8 %; Ministry of Water Resources, N3billion; Commerce and Industry, N2billion; while other ministries shared N6.89 billion, being 18.7% of the budget for the sector.
The social sector got a total of N10.3 billion, representing 16.5 % of the capital budget, with education having allocation of N6 billion, health N2.4 billion and others N1.95 billion.
The judiciary and capital city, Abakaliki and environs, received N1.117 billion and N0.203 billion respectively.
Giving an overview of the 2015 budget, Mr. Umahi noted that the past administration had on December 30, 2014 presented to the House of Assembly its 2015 appropriation bill.