Governor Ayade Presents N1.3tn Budget For 2018

GOVERNOR of Cross River State, Ben Ayade, yesterday, made history as the first governor to propose a trillion naira budget in the country when he laid a budget estimate of N1.306 trillion before the state house of assembly for the 2018 fiscal year.

Before now, Lagos State held the record with its 2017 N812 billion budget and is expected to hit the one trillion mark this year. However, Lagos State is yet to present its 2018 budget.

According to Vanguard, Governor Ben Ayade's move is reminiscent of a similar move made by elder statesman, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, when as governor of Lagos State in the Second Republic, he presented a budget of N1 billion for Lagos State, the first time a state government was hitting N1 billion budget. Christened “Budget of Kinetic Crystallization,” Ayade said the budget is to crystallize all the efforts and vision that have been put into developing the state since he assumed office in 2015 and to move it from a civil service economy to an entrepreneurial economy.

The governor said 70 per cent of the budget will be for Capital Expenditure while 30 per cent will be for Recurrent Expenditure. He said though the money is not readily available, it is expected that with the approval and commencement of signature projects, foreign investors are expected to bring in funds that will be used to fund the budget

Ayade who announced the payment of December salary while presenting the budget stated that the Paris Club Refund the state has received could only pay the salaries for seven months but he has adopted a unique funding style to consistently pay salaries every month. 

He called on the Federal Government to allow the state explore and exploits its vast oil deposit found in different parts of the state to compensate it for the loss of 76 oil wells for which the state finances have been negatively impacted.