Obaseki to present 2017 budget December 15

Edo State Government has said that its 2017 budget proposal to the State House of Assembly will be ready before December 15, 2016.

BusinessDay reports that the state governor, Godwin Obaseki made the disclosure recently during a visit to World Bank and some federal government ministries in Abuja. The federal ministries visited by the governor are ministry of finance, budget and national planning.

“We will submit our budget before the 15th of December and that is one of the reasons why we are making these visits to ensure the amount of donor funding or support that we need to include in our budget”, he said.

Obaseki said the visit to the World Bank and the federal ministries was to liaise with the authorities in order for the state to ascertain the amount of donor-support that should be incorporated into the budget.

He also disclosed that the state Government has entered into partnership with the World Bank and the two federal ministries with a view to assist the state to efficiently execute its poverty reduction schemes.

He opined that World Bank would be of tremendous assistance from the 2017 budget conception through technical support facilities initiatives for agro-processing zones which the state intend to harness, facilities to support technical education to access among others.

“I am at the World Bank, and you know they have been very active partners in the governance of the state and so as we prepare for 2017 budget, we need to have conversations with them on some areas of support and to also express our gratitude for their intervention since the last eight years.

‘’As the state prepares for its 2017 budget the bank would provide a lot of technical support to the state in sectors that could accelerate economic progress and job creation.

“In fact the recession itself provides opportunity and that means we now have to look inwards since we are not able to raise the amount of foreign exchange as we had in the past to import the goods and services we need. For instance, we used to spend about $15 billion importing food to the country and we want to make Edo state one of the centers for food production in Nigeria”, he stated.