Benue State Govt releases 2017 budget

A budget of N176.6 billion has been passed by Benue State House of Assembly for the 2017 financial year.This was consequent upon the report released by the standing committee on Appropriation in the Committee of Supply led by the Speaker, Mr Terkimbi Ikyange.The budget titled “Budget of Rural Transformation” contains an increase of N12. 7 billion as against the N163. 9 billion sent by Gov Samuel Ortom for the Assembly’s approval last year.Barr Adam Okloho, Chairman of the House Appropriation Committee said the increment was due to the exclusion of some current projects by the Finance Ministry and another demand by MDAs to include a number of projects missed out in the proposed budget figure.The budget breakdown showed that recurrent expenditure takes N66.7 billion while N109.9 billion is to be spent for capital expenditure leaving N36.1 billion for deficit financing.The Finance Ministry was ordered by the House to make fund available to MDAs to enable the government agencies and departments perform the required capital expenditure votes.