On Tuesday, Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki signed a revised supplementary budget of ₦450 billion into law.
The signing took place in the Exco Chamber at the Government House in Benin City. Governor Obaseki announced that approximately ₦5 billion of the budget will be allocated to support the growth of small businesses across the state.
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He said, “I want to express my profound gratitude and appreciation to Mr. Speaker and members of the Edo State House of Assembly (EDHA) for the honour you have given us by promptly and expeditiously approving the revised supplementary budget.
“Also, I thank you for your understanding and appreciation of the issues at stake. Last week, I met with Mr Speaker and the appropriation committee to inform them of the need for a revision of the budget they had earlier approved.
“We had to come back to the House to request for a revision and a supplementary allocation of the existing 2024 budget. After proper review and analysis, we found out that the 2023 budget was about N225 billion and at that time the exchange rate was about N750.
“It only follows common sense that if we must grow the economy of Edo State, our budget size needed to be doubled. What we have done in Edo is not just to double the budget size but to ensure more efficiency of the budget.”
Obaseki continued: “What is different about this budget which has been revised is that we are almost certain that we have a 95 percent performance on the budget. As of half a year, we are almost at 100 per cent relatively speaking. We don’t see the situation changing at the end of this year.
“What is more important for the Edo people that we represent is that with this supplementary provision, most provisions are now going to capital expenditure. Whereas at the last evaluation, the budget ratio was about 55 per cent for capital and 45 per cent for recurrent, this appropriation is now 57 per cent for capital and 43 for recurrent expenditures. You can see that a lot more efficiency and resources are going to our people.
“We also used the opportunity of this revision to address a very important issue raised during the last citizens’ protest in Nigeria. Edo joined Nigerians to voice out their concerns about the deteriorating welfare of citizens.”
