Obaseki presents N175bn 2019 budget proposal to Edo Assembly

Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo on Monday presented a budget proposal of N175 billion for 2019 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the budget proposal is 9.2 per cent above the 2018 budget of N146 billion.

The proposed budget tagged: “Budget of Socio-Economic Inclusion’’ has N95.8 billion as capital expenditure, while N79.9 billion is proposed for recurrent expenditure.’’

The governor said the budget proposal had a deficit of N27.4 billion which would be funded through internal and external financial interventions from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s Special programmes and World Bank.

He said the budget was planned with 60 dollars bench mark crude oil price and increased state internally generated revenue.

‘‘The 2019 budget will consolidate on the infrastructural and socio-economic gains of the outgoing year 2018,’’ he said.

NAN further reports that the budget breakdown shows that N42.7 billion is allocated to infrastructure development, N9.3 billion for health, N26.8 billion for education and N7 billion for investment promotion.

Others are N2 billion for security, N9 billion for payment of pension, while N967 million is proposed for the judiciary.