Politics
GOV. Willie Obiano has presented a budget proposal of ₦143.65 billion for 2021 to the Anambra State House of Assembly.
The budget tagged: “Economic Recovery and Consolidation will aim at promoting and sustaining the status of the state in making Anambra a hub for business and a destination for new investments.’’
Presenting the budget at the Assembly, Obiano said that this would further create direct and indirect job opportunities across every sector of the state’s economy.
He said ₦86.88 billion would be spent on capital expenditure, translating to 60.5 percent of the budget, while ₦56.77 billion or 39.5 percent would be for recurrent expenditure.
Obiano projected the state’s Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, to be ₦3.04 billion monthly and ₦36.6 billion annually, while other capital receipts would amount to ₦20.9 billion.
The governor stressed that ₦5.8 billion had been earmarked for the completion of the proposed Anambra International Airport, Umueri and ₦500 million for the completion of the International Conference Centre, Awka.
He noted that ₦500 million had also been set aside for the development of sports stadiums in Awka, Ekwulobia and Otuocha.
On personnel costs, Gov. Obiano estimated ₦1.47 billion monthly, which would amount to about ₦17.6 billion in the year.
He, then, explained that the figure would ensure that new employees would be accommodated into the civil service, including the replacements of retired teachers and staff member promotions.
The budget breakdown showed that roads, bridges and other infrastructure would gulp ₦32 billion; out of which, ₦19.44 would be for the construction of new roads and rehabilitation of existing ones.
Health and agriculture would gulp ₦6.8 billion and ₦2.5 billion respectively, while education would get ₦5.0 billion, to be spread across every sector of the education sector.
According to him ₦3.15 billion has been earmarked for special projects in Basic Education — Secondary Schools; ₦8 billion to Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board, ASUBEB, while ₦2.17 billion toward infrastructure and capacity improvements in state-owned universities, colleges and polytechnics.
Water Resources and Public Utilities received ₦3.77 billion, while Environment would get ₦3.4 billion.
Out of ₦2bn for the Small & Medium Enterprises Development would be shared in the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme facility; while ₦1bn will be spent to fund micro entrepreneurs through cooperatives that cut across the three senatorial districts. The disbursement would be 60 and 40 percent to men and women respectively.
The balance of ₦1 billion will be disbursed and managed at single digit interest rate to Small and Medium Enterprises. “We are also finalising a COVID-19 response programme with the World Bank, which will provide an additional $5 million to support capacity-building programmes and start-up funding for young entrepreneurs.
“For the Youth Empowerment and Creative Economy, the recent #Endsars protests across Nigeria compelled a rigorous review of our plans for Anambra State youths.
“As a listening government, we have set aside ₦200m for payments as compensations to our people who have proven cases of gross human rights violations, torture and deaths, from the activities of the defunct SARS in Anambra State.
“Indeed, my administration has great regards for Anambra youths as note less than 70 per cent of my appointees are youths.
“Therefore, the aggregate funding allocated to Youth Entrepreneurship & Empowerment Programmes across all Ministries, Departments and Agencies in the state is ₦5.4bn.
“We have also allocated not less than ₦1.1bn to empower youths through vocational, agricultural and artisan training programmes as well as ₦120m for the establishment of creative centres, Innovation Hubs and ICT-related projects,’’ Gov. Obiano said.
Receiving the budget, the Speaker, Mr. Uche Okafor, said the presentation was necessary to obtain legislative consent for the amount of money to be spent in the coming financial year.
He commended the governor for timely presentation of the budget estimate, saying that it would give the Assembly ample time for thorough scrutiny.
“We promise to continue to contribute to peace, unity and progress of the state through enactment of quality laws, effective representation as well as timely and responsible oversight,’’ the Speaker said.
– Nov. 4, 2020 @ 16:25 GMT |
Tags: 2021 Budget: Gov. Obiano presents N143.65bn to Anambra State Assembly
