Umahi presenting the 2022 Appropriation Bill before the Ebonyi House of Assembly, Wednesday
Gov. Umahi presents N145bn Appropriation bill for 2022 fiscal year to Ebonyi Assembly
[From CHINEDU NWAFOR, Abakaliki]
Governor David Umahi on Wednesday presented a total budget estimate of N145,410,597,723.49 in the appropriation bill for 2022 fiscal year to the Ebonyi State House of Assembly.
The appropriation bill was tagged “Budget of Latter Rain.”
The budget proposal recorded an increase of 46.65% over the 2021 revised approved budget, which is N199, 157,171,152.65.
According to Umahi, the 46.65% increase of the 2022 budget over the 2021 revised Budget was due to the carryover of a large part of the expected receipts in 2021 fiscal year to the next fiscal year.
He listed the expected receipts in 2022 fiscal year to include, “₦4,315,000,000.00 from TETFund for tertiary institutions; UBEB growth of over ₦1,200,000,000.00 and SFTAS of ₦16,727,700,000.00); World Bank COVID-19 grants of ₦1,000,000,000.00; Federal Government of Nigeria bridging finance of ₦18,225,336,103.00 given to each of the 36 States in Nigeria, and Domestic Loan of ₦7,000,000,000.00 to fund 2022 budget deficit.
The governor proposed N89,763,717,205 as Capital expenditure representing 61.73% of the total budget while the Recurrent expenditure is proposed to be N55, 646, 880, 517.69 representing 38.27% of total budget.
He said, “This proportion of 61.73% Capital to 38.27% Recurrent (ratio of 1.6 to 1) is structured bearing in mind our determination to deepen our capital projects development especially the completion of on going projects”
Umahi further noted that the Capital Expenditure increased by 53.56% from the 2021 Capital Budget while the 2022 recurrent budget is 36.72%, higher than the 2021 budget.
The Ministry of Education got N24,397,499,015.78 covering 16.78% of the total budget sum while the Ministry of Works got N24,335,057,558.09 which is 16.74% of the Budget Sum; implying that the two Ministries got the larger chunks of the budget sum.
The Ministry of Infrastructural Development for Concession is having the Sum of N17,498,506,922.44 covering 12.03%; the Ministry of Human Capital Development and Monitoring got N3,612,684,038.76 which is 2.48%, while the Ministry of Health got N7,626,686,246.07 only covering 5.24%, and the Ministry of Agriculture which got N3,425,238,354.88) covering 2.38% of the 2022 budget sum.
Umahi also disclosed that his administration would pay more attention on the following: giving employment and empowerment to the people, infrastructural intervention in both Ebonyi State College of Education and Ebonyi State University to raise the quality of learning; establishment of Aeronautical Engineering University and the University of ICT, Science and Technology and stoppage of leakages and illegal revenue collections, among others.
In his speech, the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, commended the Governor Umahi for his transformation efforts and assured that the budget proposal would be given speedy approval.
The Oracle Today reports that the appropriation bill passed first and second reading in the presence of the Governor, before the House was adjourned to a later date.
