Okorocha Presents Budget Of N276bn For 2019

Lukman Amusa

The Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, on Thursday presented an aggregate budget of N276,818,017,812 for the 2019 fiscal year, as against the N85,896,607,552 of 2018 fiscal year.

He stated that the recurrent revenue was N97,690,048,847, while the capital receipt was N179,128,022,965.

The budget, tagged, “Budget of Consolidation and Economic Stability,” was presented at the state House of Assembly, Owerri.

Presenting the budget, Okorocha said that the capital estimate of N214,641,699,585 represented 77.54 per cent and N62,176,372,227 for recurrent expenditure represented 22.46 per cent of the total budget.

He further said that the budget was underpinned by the National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan of 2017-2020, whose broad objective included restoring growth, investing in the people and building a competitive economy.

He said, “The document as outlined is designed that we complete all on-going projects in the state, implore the economic growth through investment in infrastructure as well as eliminate wastage and other unjustifiable expenditure that are not clearly linked to policy objectives of the Rescue Mission administration.”

Okorocha, however, contended that the budget was anchored on the second phase of the state’s four-year development plan, 2015-2019, previously passed by the state House of Assembly.

“The budget will leverage the recovery in the domestic economy and channel resources to production sectors of the economy to ensure sustainable development.”

He contended that the recurrent expenditure was expected to increase from N57,943,968,424 in 2018 approved budget to N62,176,372,227 in 2019 proposed budget, which amounted to increase of 7.3 per cent, while capital expenditure increased from N137,977,495,866 to N214,641,699,585, a difference of 61.4 per cent.

On Judiciary, Okorocha noted that as the third arm of government, his administration had provided conducive working environment, adding that the new High Court complex was nearing completion for the state judiciary.