Edo State Government on Wednesday signed the Revised 2020 Appropriation Bill into law with a pledge to make necessary sacrifices to ensure the sustenance of critical sectors of the state’s economy amid disruptions caused by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The budget was reduced by 30 percent from N179billion to N128.8 billion.
The State governor, Godwin Obaseki who signed the Revised 2020 Appropriation Bill into law said the
30 percent reduction will not affect workers’ salary and pensions
He noted that the budget is coming at an unusual time when the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed certain challenges.
“The challenges may be difficult now but in the medium and long-term, this administration would need to re-think the economy of the state.
“The financial and economic consequences of COVID-19 pandemic are challenging, if not more challenging than the health crisis it created. Following several reforms taken by this administration, especially in our financial management and budgeting system, and that of the economy, the impact has not been so devastating.
“We have been able to pay workers’ salaries and also pay our pensioners on time. We will focus on critical infrastructure that is required for production. We would be realigning the Edo economy to make us stronger after the pandemic comes to an end.
“With this budget as a state, we need to make painful adjustments as we don’t intend to lay off workers or stop paying pensioners. We would spend more on recurrent expenditure as we keep jobs on, but it will affect capital expenditure that we wanted to undertake this year 2020”,he said.
He assured that despite the reduction in the 2020 Budget by 30 per cent, his administration will focus on the things that are key, important and critical for the state’s development.
He opined that people and nations no longer depend much on energy and crude oil, following the slowdown in the global economy.
According to him, transportation has been grounded, factories are not producing as we are having a cyclical shift in earning profits and its fundamentals as life may not go back to what it used to be.
Earlier, Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly, Frank Okiye, said the world has found itself in rare circumstances as COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world to its knees.
He explained that the proposed revised budget by the state governor was not a surprise to the state lawmakers.
“Due to the great plans for the state, you presented N179 billion at the beginning of the year, for the 2020 fiscal year but due to coronavirus, we had no choice than to bring it down to N128.8 billion”,he stated.
