Cross River State Governor, Ayade Signs 2020 Budget Of N1.1Tr Into Law

Cross River State Governor Benedict Ayade has signed the state’s 2020 budget of N1.1 trillion into law. Ayade, who signed the bill yesterday at the Governor’s Chamber, commended the House of Assembly for beating the deadline of passing the appropriation bill before December 31, 2019.

The governor said the ‘Budget of Olimpotic Meristemasis’ would cover capital expenditure of 82 per cent and 18 per cent recurrent expenditure.According to the professor, the N1.1 trillion budget is geared towards bringing to fruition the signature projects of the administration, including the 270km superhighway connecting Cross River with northern Nigeria.His words, “Cross River is the first state in the history of Nigeria to present a budget of over a trillion naira.

“There are two types of budgeting; either you do deficit budgeting or envelope budgeting. In envelope budgeting, if you look at your medium term expenditure framework (MTEF), you budget according to your expectation, which is an agenda informed by how much you intend to achieve.

“Nobody has asked how Cross River, which gets the lowest allocation in the country and services debt in the neighourhood of N1.8 billion, manages to pay teachers, civil servants and pensioners.

”He expressed satisfaction that Cross River was able to achieve its objectives because the deficiency was compromised with intellectual money.

“At any point in time a man’s ability is limited by his financial muscle, his brain has failed. In the 2020 appropriation bill I have just signed into law, we have developed factories that have matured to a point where you need only operating capital to have them start commercial production. It will be the end of suffering in Cross River.

“Cross River state has 33 industries in four years and you can point at them. So, I want to assure all of you that this budget of N1.1 trillion is something we can achieve, something we can accomplish.

“While presenting the budget to the governor earlier, the House of Assembly speaker, Jonas Williams, said, “The appropriation bill is like a Bible for us because it is the document we work with. We don’t have any other document.”