The Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obeseki on Tuesday presented to Edo State House of Assembly a N325.3 billion 2024 budget.
The budget christened ”Budget of Home Run and Finishing Strong”, will be the last budget Obeseki will be presenting as governor of Edo State as the state sets to hold a governorship election in February next year.
According to the governor, the budget was made up of N178 billion in capital expenditure and N146 billion in recurrent expenditure.
He mentioned that the budget slightly exceeded the N321.4 billion allocated in 2023.
Obaseki stated that the anticipated revenue for 2024 is N303 billion, comprising N55 billion in statutory allocations, N38 billion from VAT, N40 billion in capital receipts, N72 billion from IGR, and N10 billion from grants.
He added that the remaining funds would come from a combination of development financing and financial institutions.
What the governor said
Furthermore, 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% of the total budget (N85 billion) would be allocated to areas that would stimulate growth and employment while 19% (N62.8 billion) would allocated to infrastructure, particularly roads.
- ‘’Others are, 10% (N33.6 billion) allocated to health, 16% to other government activities, 10% of the total budget (32.2 billion) allocated to education, 7% (N21 billion) allocated to building and Social welfare 5% (N16 billion)
- ‘’2% each was also allocated to climate and environment issues, electricity, youths and agriculture,’’ he said.
More Insights
Receiving the budget, the Speaker of the House, Blessing Agbebaku promised to look at it carefully to ensure it was in line with the promise to stimulate the economy.
He pledged to review it meticulously alongside the budget committee of the house to ensure a commitment to boost the economy.
- “The year 2024 budget is special to us in the legislative arm, as it is going to be inclusive of our constituency projects to allow us to meet the yearnings and aspirations of our constituents,” he added.
