By Patrick Obia
Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State has presented the 2020 financial estimates to the House of Assembly.
He is proposing to spend NGN1,100,167,507.09 in the 2020 financial year. There is almost no difference in the estimates of 2019 and 2020 which despite announcing NGN1.043 trillion, turned out to be NGN1.148 trillion written on the budget document.
While presenting the budget document, Ayade said: “In view of the progress made from the last budget, a new budget has been brought. Therefore, the budget of this year is one trillion, one hundred billion, one hundred and sixty seven million, five hundred and seven thousand Naira and nine Kobo; that is the budget for this year.”
He left the Assembly in laughter and claps when he said: “And the budget name is the budget of olympotic meristemasis.”
He explained that: “The budget of Olympotic Meristemasis is a budget that believes in the spiritual force which is the third energy. Meristemasis is the active growth of a young variant plant in extension, the state.
“So, olympotic as it is, Meristemastic as it is, it is also having sociological agglutination. So i believe that the budget of olympotic meristemasis would catalyse into existence, a great opportunity for us all to put our hands and legs on the paddle and speed it off.”
82.8 percent of the budget is earmarked for capital expenditure while 17.2 percent is earmarked for recurrent expenditure.
“I believe that, that budget figure, if you distill it into capital expenditure which stands at 911 billion representing 82.8 percent of the budget and of course, the total recurrent expenditure stands at basically 17.2 percent. The implication of this is that 188 billion is set aside for recurrent expenditure and 911 billion set aside for capital expenditure. This is a very aggressive, this is a very audacious commitment that we continue to reduce recurrent expenditure and focus on capital expenditure,” Ayade said.
In the 2019 budget, there was zero deficit and surplus despite the combined revenue accruing to the State totaling less than NGN100 billion per annum.
But, Mr. Ayade posits that his budgeting style is the future of budgeting.
“The analysis of the capital receipts have been given. Indications on the source has been done. My philosophical conclusion is that Nigerians must come to the understanding that indeed any State whose budget is driven by the envelope size, is limited in vision,” he said.
He added that: “There are two ways in business and public sector management that you derive your budget. It is either that your budget comes as an expression of your envelope size or as an expression of your ambition.
“The prosperity agenda set for this state does not allow me the opportunity of an envelope budgeting. Our budget prescribes the actual cost element while the intellectual financing shuns the cost because the ambition so expressed allows us the latitude to drive with to ensure that we guarantee that all aspects of the budget so provided are driven.”
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