Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, has proposed a total budgetary outlay of N435.652billion for the 2021 financial year to the State House of Assembly for consideration and approval.
The 2021 budget which is christened “budget of economic reconstruction,” is expected to moved the state closer to actualizing her dreams and aspirations of transforming from a Civil Service State to an industrialized one.
The 2021 budget is slightly lower than the state’s 2020 budget, which was N597.737billion and later revised to N366billion, due to the impact of corona virus on the nation’s economy.
Governor Udom said the 2021 Budget is predicated on an oil benchmark of $40 per barrel at a production rate of 1.86 million barrels per day, with an estimated exchange rate of N379/$1, in line with the National Budget benchmark projections.
He said the budget was prepared in accordance with International Public Sector Accounting Standard, IPSAS Accrual Template, which classifies transactions into Revenue, Expenditure, Asset and Liabilities, thus aiding effective and efficient financial analysis.
“The 2021 budget has recurrent expenditure of N158.403 billion, while capital expenditure is N226.964 billion, whereas the consolidated revenue fund charge is N50.285 billion, which amounts to N435.652 billion.
“The total projected Recurrent Revenue for 2021 is estimated at N255.003 billion as against the approved revised provision of N203.556 billion for 2020.
“The breakdown of expected revenue for 2021 is as follows, internally generated revenue, N36.295billion; statutory allocation N36.000billion; Derivation Fund N140.000billion;
“Others are, excess crude, exchange gain, augmentation and others N25.000billion; retained revenue from parastatals N1.708billion, value added tax N16.000billion, which is totalled at N255.003billion.”
The policy thrusts and objectives of the 2021 budget is education, completion agenda, training and retraining of civil servants on the current trends in public administration, investments in healthcare delivery, development renaissance anchored on industrialization to take roots in land, air and sea infrastructures.
“Our Air infrastructure-Ibom Air today is the pride of the nation and we are working hard to ensure that we realize the Ibom Deep Seaport project in the life of this Administration,” the governor said.