Gov Ortom presents N132b 2021 budget to Benue State Assembly

From Isaac Kertyo Makurdi   

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State on Thursday presented to the Benue State House of Assembly over N132 billion 2021 budget proposal for consideration and passage into law.    Making the presentation at the assembly complex in Makurdi, the Governor explained that the recurrent expenditure for the proposed fiscal year stands at N90,810,951,749,551.

Tagged budget of resilience, Ortom noted that the estimated budget was based on the bench mark of crude oil price of N40 dollar per barrel and oil production at 1.86m barrel per day with the exchange rate of N379 to the dollar with an inflation rate of N11.95 percent.   

The Governor who reviewed the performance of the last year’s budget contended that the budget was amended in response to I’m betting the challenges occasioned by the covid-19 pandemic with the total expenditure of the revised budget at N108 billion.   

He averred that the success of the proposed next year budget is dependent on improvement in the revenue sharing formula, strengthening of Internally Generated Revenue, IGR collection in the state in collaboration with Local Government councils, blockage of leakages in internal revenue generation by ministries, departments and agencies, and remitting all allocations into government’s single treasury account.   
Responding, the Speaker of the assembly, Mr Titus Uba assured that the 2021 budget proposal would be given serious attention to ensure it’s quick passage.