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The governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr Udom Emmanuel has signed the 2018 Appropriation bill into law.
The total figure of 646.6 billion Naira, which he assented to on Wednesday, is against the 651 billion naira he had earlier proposed to the State House of Assembly.
A breakdown of the budget shows that 431.1 billion naira is for capital expenditure while 94.6 billion naira is for recurrent expenditure. Consolidated fund charges stands at 120.8 billion naira.
During a brief ceremony at the Government House, Uyo, Governor Emmanuel thanked the House of Assembly and the Committee on Finance and Appropriation for the robust deliberations which resulted in the speedy passage of the Appropriation bill, and assured that his administration will ensure full implementation of the budget.
“Let me once again thank the speaker, members of the State House of Assembly and most especially the chairman House Committee on Finance and Appropriation for a job well done.
“I also thank all the MDAs that have contributed towards this budget and also pledge on behalf of the Exco that we are determined to implement this budget and also look forward to the cooperation of the Federal government to enable this budget to be fully implemented,” he said.
Chairman of the House committee on Finance and Appropriation, Hon. Usoro Akpanusoh later said that the committee took into consideration the needs of the people and effected necessary adjustment to arrive at the 0.7 differentials.
Dr. Akpanusoh explained that there were some very critical areas that needed augmentations and there were some areas that needed additional money for MDAs.
He said his committee refused to increase the budget size and opted to reduce it, maintaining that this resulted in some savings out of which more funds where channeled into those ministries, departments and agencies that made request during budget defense.
“The balance of what we saved is less the total percentage of the budget that was brought to the House of Assembly by His Excellency, the governor,” he added.
Commissioner for Finance, Mr Linus Nkan however said that the consideration of the budget had shown the existing synergy between the executive and the legislature as the two arms of government sort each other’s contributions to the passage of the bill.
The budget was passed into law last week by the State House of Assembly.
