Edo Governor, Obaseki Signs 2023 Appropriation Bill

Godwin Obaseki, Edo State Governor has on Tuesday signed the state’s 2023 Appropriation Bill into Law.

The appropriation bill was slightly increased from the initial N320 billion sent by the Governor, to N321.3 billion and passed by the State House of Assembly.

Prior to signing the bill at the Government House, in Benin City, Obaseki said most of the projects in the budget will be funded from Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR).

He said, “The budget for 2023 is a watershed budget because as we reviewed the year 2022, we found out that we broke every record in the year 2022.

“In terms of budget performance, we hit more than 90 percent, which is considered excellent. This means that we got more than 90 percent of our estimated revenue of N220bn in the finance budget for 2022.

“We also insisted and emphasized a lot more on capital expenditure than recurrent. Unfortunately, we had a very long rainy season but as you can see now, contractors are on site and work is going on in a lot of roads across the 3 senatorial districts of the state and some of these works will spill over into the New Year”, he said.

The Governor commended the Speaker, Marcus Onobun and other members of the Assembly for the speedy consideration of the budget.

Earlier, while presenting the bill to the Governor, Onobun said the Assembly slightly reviewed the estimates upwards from the initial N320 billion to ensure equitable distribution of projects across the state’s three senatorial districts.