Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom on Monday signed the 2022 appropriation bill into law with a total outlay of N586.88 billion.
The 2022 budget christened “budget of redefining standards,” was passed by the State House of Assembly on December 2 with an increase of N4.77 billion.
This represents an increase of 0.8 percent from the initial estimate of N582.12 billion presented by the governor.
The signed budget is made up of N261.96 billion recurrent and N324.91 billion capital expenditure.
Emmanuel assented to the bill during an expanded executive council meeting. He commended the State House of Assembly, ministry of finance, budget office, accountant-general office and other government agencies involved in the budgetary process for its timely passage.
“We are believing that with God on our side 2022 will be better than 2021. It is expedient to sign the bill early enough in the week to allow for a smooth winding down of the year 2021 and take-off 2022, considering the nearness to Christmas.
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“The accompanying holidays will reduce the productivity of the state being predominantly Christian state,” Emmanuel said.
He also directed the state accountant- general, Andrew Essien, to ensure payment of salaries and pension to retirees in the state on or before December 23 to support their yuletide celebration.
“I have given an order to the accountant-general to try and pay civil servants’ salaries almost immediately.
“We are a Christian state, whether the Federal Government gives us money or not, we must look for money anywhere to make sure that our people hold their Christmas.
“We need at least N10 billion to be able to pay salaries and pensioners must also be paid. “It has to be done between now and Thursday because Friday is Christmas eve,” he said.
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