Rivers State government will spend N530 billion in 2020, should the Rivers State House of Assembly approve it as expected. This is N50 billion higher than the N480 billion for 2019.
Governor Nyesom Wike presented the budget proposal Tuesday afternoon before the lawmakers, calling it ‘Budget of Reassurance.’
The governor said the 2019 budget performed only by 64 percent by end of October 2019, where the one of 2018 performed at 79 percent by end of November of that year.
The governor said internally generated revenue (IGR) garnered N90 billion by 10 months, making it an average of N9 billion per month whereas the Joint Tax Board (JTB) had issued half year report of the state’s IGR at N12.67 billion half year average.
He said: “At as end of October 2019, total net revenue collected between January and October was N261 billion representing about 64.4 percent of total revenue estimates.
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“Further breakdown shows that only N37 billion was collected as FAAC receipts; N79.7 billion as 13 percent Oil Mineral Fund, N90.9 billion as taxes, and N14.67 billion as Value Added Tax. Also, N600 million was received as Paris Club Refund, N25 billion as local credits, while others, including exchange gain, forex equalisation and excess bank charges amounted to N7.5 billion.”
The budget report sent from the Government House did not reveal how the budget would be funded, but the governor seemed to lean much on IGR, which has been on the upward surge. He did not state how much he expected from the source next year.
The weight of the budget is on spending areas. He allocated the highest (N97bn) to works to continue with many road projects. Next is education where the state is to see the highest education budget ever. The governor proposed the sum of N49.471 billion to fund the education sector for 2020.
He said: “This sum represents 20 percent of the total budget and is the highest ever budgetary allocation to education, reflecting the level of our commitment to investing in the future of our children.
“In 2020, we will continue to ensure the systematic rehabilitation, upgrade and transformation of our primary, secondary and tertiary institutions and build new ones where the population demands to deliver a more conducive learning environment across schools in Rivers State.
“For basic education, we will promptly access the contributory grant from the Federal Government and deploy same to improve access, standards and quality. We will also continue to improve access to ICT infrastructure, employ more teachers to further reduce the teacher/learners’ ratio, especially in English Language, Mathematics, Science and technology and ensure the training and retraining of teachers to deliver measurable results and outstanding outcomes in our primary and secondary schools.”
