Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State yesterday presented a budget proposal of ₦175 billion for 2019 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly.
The budget proposal is 9.2 per cent above the 2018 budget of ₦146 billion.
The proposed budget tagged: “Budget of Socio-Economic Inclusion” has ₦95.8 billion as capital expenditure, while ₦79.9 billion is proposed for recurrent expenditure.”
The governor said the budget proposal had a deficit of ₦27.4 billion which would be funded through internal and external financial interventions from the Central Bank of Nigeria, BN’s Special programmes and World Bank.
According to him, the budget was planned with 60 dollars bench mark crude oil price and increased state internally generated revenue, saying ‘The 2019 budget will consolidate on the infrastructural and socio-economic gains of the outgoing year 2018.”
The budget breakdown shows that ₦42.7 billion is allocated to infrastructure development, N9.3 billion for health, ₦26.8 billion for education and ₦7 billion for investment promotion.
Others are ₦2 billion for security, ₦9 billion for payment of pension, while ₦967 million is proposed for the judiciary.
The governor said: “The 2019 budget proposal reflects this administration’s intention to promote social inclusion and economic empowerment for Edo citizens, through the deepening of investments in socio-economic, governance and security infrastructure; and through the implementation of initiatives that guarantee equal access to education, health care and social protection.”