Okowa presents N561.8bn budget to state assembly

Ifeanyi Okowa’, Delta State Governor, on Thursday, presented the state’s 2023 Appropriation Bill to the state House of Assembly, proposing a budget of N561.8 billion in the fiscal year.

According to him, the figure showed an increase of 17 percent from the 2022 budget.

Tagged “The budget of seamless and stable transition”, Okowa said the budget estimate is made up of capital expenditure of N326.6 billion and the recurrent expenditure N235.2 billion.

The governor stated that the capital expenditure represents 58 percent of the total expenditure and an increase of N82,87 billion or 17 percent growth from the 2022 budget.

He added that the recurrent expenditure represents 42 percent of the total expenditure and an increase of N46,996,627,425 or 25 percent from the 2022 Budget of N188,211,712,676

He stated that the main source of funds for the 2023 budget included Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) with a projection of N95 billion IGR in 2023, representing 17 percent of total projected revenue for the year. He said that other sources of revenue are statutory allocation and other capital receipts.

Read also: Sanwo-Olu proposes N1.692trn for 2023

The governor stated that in considering the macro-economic framework for the 2023 – 2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), the state took into consideration the National Inflation (consumer prices), the real GDP growth, derived from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), and the Federal Government’s assumptions for the preparation of the 2023 Budget.

“Therefore, the framework as shown below guided our assumption in arriving at our estimates: Benchmark oil price of 70 US Dollars per barrel; daily oil production benchmark of 1.69 million barrels; exchange rate of N435.57 per US Dollar; and GDP growth projected at 3.75 percent and inflation closing at 17.16 percent.

We have painstakingly prepared an equitable, realistic, and implementable budget estimate in the context of the multi-year (2021-2023) Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) that will be in line with the current economic realities,.he stated.

“A review of our performance in the outgoing fiscal year constitutes a good background for the presentation of what we have outlined to achieve in the incoming fiscal year, ” he said.

“It is our expectation that all spending proposals for the 2023 budget must be guided by the principles of fiscal discipline, transparency, accountability, and prudent utilization of scarce resources.

“It is important to emphasize that the 2023 budget is targeted at strengthening the achievements made by this administration since 2015.We intend to maintain our policy thrust of prudent management of resources, budget discipline, observance of due process, ensuring good value for money, completion of ongoing projects, provision of basic infrastructure, general increase in agricultural production, improving the livelihood of the those in the lower rung of the economic ladder and enhancement of IGR’, he stated.