The Benue State Governor, Chief Samuel Ortom on Tuesday proposed a budget draft of N179.7 billion for the 2023 fiscal year to the House of Assembly.
Daily Trust reports that the 2023 budget is over N24.1bn higher than the 2022 budget of N155.6bn for economic growth and human capital development.
Ortom, while presenting the N179,750bn estimate before the lawmakers, intimated that of the amount, N106.1bn would be expended on recurrent expenditure.
He said that the 2022 budget christened, “Budget of Consolidation and Transition”, would prepare his administration for transition to the next government.
“The country’s challenges seem to be growing in size. Benue is striving hard to defend its status as the food basket of the nation,” he said.
The governor disclosed that the economic sector takes the highest share of N94.3bn, followed by the social sector with the sum of N44.7bn and the administrative sector got N43.8bn while the law and justice sector has the lowest share of N6.5bn.
Receiving the estimated budget, Speaker of the House, Titus Uba, assured that the house would ensure speedy passage of the budget as he appealed for cooperation of his members and the various MDAs to achieve success.