17th December, 2019
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has presented a budget proposal of N530,813,357,619.00 for the 2020 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly for consideration and passage.
The 2020 Budget of Rivers State is christened: Budget of “Reassurance, profound impact for inclusive growth and shared prosperity”.
The Rivers State Government in 2019 budgeted N480 billion for recurrent and capital expenditure.
Presenting the 2020 Budget Proposal to the Rivers State House of Assembly on Tuesday, Wike said that the budget has total recurrent expenditure of N156,659,436569.00, while capital expenditure is N374,153,920,743.00.
Wike said: “The capital expenditure for 2020 is estimated to be N374, 153,920,743.00, which constitutes nearly 70% of the total budget.
The summary of sectoral allocations of the capital expenditure are as follows: Administrative sector: N15, 061,008,000.00; Economic sector; N136, 444,523,766.60; Law and Justice: N2, 400,000,000.00; Social sector: N138, 558,553,322.35; Special Head: N57, 367,124,462.05 and Loan repayments: N24,322,731,192.00
“The substantial increase in capital over recurrent expenditure, once again reflects and underscores our commitment to direct more resources to the growth and productive sectors of our economy.
“This Administration is poised to fulfill every promise it made to our people. Consequently, various expenditure portfolios have been allocated to all the relevant MDAs to fund capital expenditures and deliver physical and socio-economic infrastructure and development for our people.”
The Highpoint of the recurrent expenditure is the allocation of funds for the new minimum wage and the recruitment of new employees.
“The sum of N70,227,748,472.32 is earmarked for salaries and wages; N8,000,000,000.00 for the new minimum wage, while N18,429,375,634.45 is for overheads.
“Also, N5,000,000,000.00 is set aside for new recruitment; N3,000,000,000.00 as counterpart fund for pensions, N900,000,000.00 for death benefits and N33,176,728,931.33 as monthly pensions and gratuities. Government has also provided over N400,000,000.00 as counterpart contributions for donor programmes,” he said.
Wike stated that the sum of N93,968,823,766.60 has been provided for the Ministry of Works to continue to fund the strategic road development programme for 2020. He said that several roads are under construction , but the State Government is committed to delivering some key roads by the end of 2020.
The Governor added that the State Government has allocated N26,087,783,322.35 for e Bureau for Special Projects to fund the completion of key ongoing projects.
He noted that the sum of N3,000,000,000.00 has been allocated to the Ministry of Transport to complete the Bonny/Bile/Nembe jetty and embark on other key projects, including rehabilitating of bus stops to advance the transport sector in the State.
The Governor proposed the sum of N49.471 billion to fund the education sector for 2020.
He said: “This sum represents 20% of the total budget and is the highest ever budgetary allocation to education, reflecting the level of our commitment to investing in the future of our children.
“In 2020, we will continue to ensure the systematic rehabilitation, upgrade and transformation of our primary, secondary and tertiary institutions and build new ones where the population demands to deliver a more conducive learning environment across schools in Rivers State. For basic education, we will promptly access the contributory grant from the Federal Government and deploy same to improve access, standards and quality.
“We will also continue to improve access to ICT infrastructure, employ more teachers to further reduce the teacher/learners’ ratio, especially in English Language, Mathematics, Science and technology and ensure the training and retraining of teachers to deliver measurable results and outstanding outcomes in our primary and secondary schools.”