Ayade Presents N301bn Budget To Assembly

The Cross River State
Governor, Professor Ben Ayade, has presented the 2017 Appropriation Bill of N301 billion to the State House of Assembly for consideration and approval.
Christened, “Budget of Infinite Transposition”, the budget, according to the governor, seeks to achieve three cardinal objectives of “improving and expanding infrastructure through Public Private Partnership, planting the ‘tree’ of the state future revenue generation and gradual industrialization of the state.”
A breakdown of the budget shows that N81,142,339,895.32 is allocated for recurrent expenditure while N220,060,873,053.48 is allocated for capital expenditure.
The reecurrent expenditure therefore, represents 24.8 per cent of the budget while the capital expenditure represents 75.2 per cent of the budget estimate.
The governor informed the assembly that it was the desire of his administration in 2017 “to focus on the superhighway because it is the main energy that will open up the vista of opportunities for prosperity. Indeed, it is the secret game changer and our deep seaport has gotten to advanced stage in terms of approval.”
Ayade, who described the size of the appropriation bill as ambitious, said he was optimistic that it can be achieved because “when there is cash deficiency, the intellect takes over.” .
He said the state intended to fund the budget from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), Statutory allocation, Capital Receipts and Projected Investor Revenue from Direct Foreign Investments.

Friday Nwagbara, Calabar