Edo Assembly passes N10.8bn Supplementary Budget

The Edo State House of Assembly on Monday in Benin City, passed into law, a N10,874,000,000 Supplementary Budget for year 2018 fiscal year, and not ‘N160 extra budget’ billion as erroneously reported by some of Nigeria’s newspapers on Tuesday November 6, 2018.

With the N10,874,000,000 supplementary budget passed into law by the Edo State Legislature, the total budget size of the state for year 2018 stands at N160,967,330,443.52, being the combined figures of the initial N150.093 billion passed and signed into law last year by Governor Godwin Obaseki, and the N10,874,000,000 passed into law on Monday, November 5, 2018.

Recall that Governor Obaseki, on Wednesday October 24, announced the decision of the state Executive Council (EXCO) after its weekly meeting, to review the 2018 budget upward.

Obaseki assured that the Supplementary budget will be channelled to education, agriculture, building human capital and creating wealth for the state and the people, adding that the revision is a demonstration of the state’s commitment to open governance and transparency.

He explained that, “In the course of the 2018 fiscal year, Mr. President approved the disbursement of the final tranche of refunds from Paris/London club of borrowers to States and Local Governments (Edo State’s share of this refund amounts to N5bn).

Mr. President further approved the application of a portion of this refund to clear the arrears of State Government’s cash contribution for Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Grants, resulting in a N3bn UBEC grant in favour of Edo State.

“The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the course of this fiscal year, approved the disbursement of concessional loans (under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme, CAC), to qualifying states.

Edo State met all qualifying criteria and thus received N5bn from the CBN under CACs. The foregoing developments were not anticipated at the time the 2018 budget proposal was approved by Executive Council in 2017.”

The revisions are in consonance with the actual expenditure run rates of affected Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs).”

Obaseki added, “The proposed revised/supplementary budget has been prepared in line with section 36 of Edo State’s Public Financial Management and Fiscal Responsibility Law (2018).”