Cross River Governor Senator Ben Ayade made history today when he presented a N1.3 trillion 2018 budget to the state house of assembly. Governor Ayade tagged the budget ‘Budget of Kinetic Crystallization. The state’s budget could thus be one of the largest in the country, rivalling Lagos State which presented an N817 billion budget for the 2017 fiscal year. The budget is 4 times higher than the N301 billion the state allocated
Details of the budget
70% of the budget has been earmarked for capital expenditure, while the rest will be for recurrent expenditure. The key capital projects that will be addressed are the state’s deep sea project and super highway.
How will the budget be funded ?
I
t is yet unknown how the budget will be funded. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics just released IGR report shows the state made a total of N14.7 billion as IGR for 2016. Year to date, the state has so far made a total of N9.4 billion as IGR, indicating it may not meet last year’s target.
The state also has a foreign debt of N168 billion and domestic debt of N128 billion as at June 2017. This indicates it it may have a herculean task in funding the budget, except through grants.
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