Benue State Government Governor, Samuel Ortom has proposed to spend N156.6billion in the 2022 fiscal year.
Ortom stated this on Wednesday while presenting the 2022 appropriation budget proposal to the Benue State House of Assembly.
Ortom said the proposed budget christened “Economic Advancement and Growth” has 98.7 billion naira as recurrent expenditure while capital receipt is 61.8 billion naira.
According to Governor Ortom, a further break down of the budget shows that the economy gets 56.7 billion, social 46.9 billion, administration 43.8 billion and law and justice 8.1 billion naira.
He noted that the estimate which is 23 billion naira higher than the 2021 budget would be financed from revenue from the Federation Account, Internally Generated Revenue as well as aids and grants.
Governor Ortom also stated that the Government would make conscious efforts to strengthen Internally Generated Revenue collection in collaboration with Local Governments.
He vowed that government will put in place measures to block all revenue leakages in Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
He maintained that in order to mitigate the challenges that would hinder the implementation of the budget, government would strengthen the existing efficiency unit in the Ministry of Finance to monitor the quality of expenditure.
Governor Ortom also stated that the 2022 budget would be diligently implemented to ensure regular payment of salaries and pensions as well as creation of job opportunities for the people.
On the performance of last year’s budget, Governor Ortom stated that even with COVID-19 and sustained attacks by herdsmen, the Government was able to record appreciable achievements in various sectors of the economy.
He particularly mentioned that the administration built and completed several roads and electricity projects, revamped educational facilities at primary, secondary and tertiary levels and promoted agricultural mechanization through acquisition and distribution of tractors.
Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly, Engineer Titus Uba while commending the Governor for presenting the budget to the Assembly earlier than last year, promised that the House will slow down other activities to focus on the budget to give it accelerated hearing.
Engineer Uba charged heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies to cooperate maximally with the House Standing Committees in the course of scrutinizing the budget to enable it come out as a perfect document.
