Adams Oshiomhole, Edo State governor, Monday, presented a budget of N75.54 billion to the state House of Assembly for approval.Presenting the budget, christened “budget of new beginning”, the governor said it would kick-start the integrated, accelerated, sustainable and people driven development in the state.
Oshiomhole, who stated that the state like the rest of the states in the country was confronted with a drastic decline in revenue arising largely from the persistent fall in allocations from the federation accounts, noted that the situation was even made worse by the meager internally generated revenue of an average of N350 million.He said in spite of the misfortune of the past governments, the challenges of his administration was to provide a more imaginative and purposeful leadership, to re-order his priorities, eliminate wastages and manage available scarce resources prudently, in order to meet the high expectations of the people by looking inwards to tap available sources of revenue and block all leakages.
The governor, who also stated that the major objective of the budget was to stimulate employment-led productive activities, create additional jobs, improve infrastructure, combat poverty and enhance the quality of life, added that roads, drainage rehabilitation, flooding and erosion control, and primary and post primary education have been identified as the three major critical areas of priority for decisive government intervention.
He also disclosed that to address the identified areas holistically, the budget would focus more particularly on Benin City in order to restore the Benin master plan, adding that investment in the transformation of Benin City in the first budget year of his administration more than any other city in the state was justifiable because of its metropolitan nature.
The governor gave the break down of the budget to include, recurrent revenue N35.66 billion and capital receipts N39.88 billion while the projected revenue include, statutory allocation N20 billion, internally generated revenue N15.6 billion, the 13 percent mineral derivation fund N.50 billion, VAT, N4.72 billion and ecological fund N3.00 billion.
