Chris Awhawha
Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, Thursday, presented a N936,078,818,719 billion Appropriation bill for the 2025 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly.
Governor Oborevwori said the budget christened, ‘Budget of Fiscal Consolidation,’ was made up of recurrent expenditure of N348,717,758,635 billion representing 37.25 per cent and capital expenditure of N587,361,060,084 representing 62.75 per cent of the total budget.
He said the 2025 budget is N211bn more than the 2024 approved sum of N725bn, indicating an increase of 29%.
The Governor attributed the increase to the realignment of the exchange rate which resulted in higher FAAC allocations and associated revenues. He said: “This is in addition to a corresponding improvement in our Internally Generated Revenues in the year.
“The 2025 budget contains several initiatives planned to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal on our people and all the attendant economic challenges it has brought upon us.
“These include deliberate provisions to strengthen our social protection interventions and safety nets, basic rural infrastructure, agriculture and food security, agro value chain, and MSMEs.
“The 2025 Budget focuses on continued provision of physical infrastructure, human capital development, job creation, wealth creation, and poverty reduction in our dear state.
“The state government intends to achieve these through prudent management of our resources and prioritizing expenditures on health, education, agriculture, water resources, environment, housing as well as women and youth empowerment programmes.
“In 2025, we propose to spend N230 billion on Road Infrastructure; N67.42 billion on Education; Health will gulp N30.55 billion; Water Resources N11.03 billion and Agriculture, N7 billion.”
Government Oborevwori appealed for the speedy passage of the appropriation bill by the lawmakers.
In his remarks, Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Emomotimi Guwor, said the state had witnessed unprecedented development due to the Governor’s pragmatic style of governance and commended the Governor for continuing and completing inherited projects from previous administration.
He lauded Governor Oborevwori for his fiscal discipline and ensuring value for money which he epitomised in returning over N500m to the state coffers while serving as Speaker and for saving over N14bn for Local Government Councils across the state.
He called on the Governor to institutionalise pre-budget planning parley between the Executive and the Legislature to help balance priorities within available resources.
The Speaker urged all Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government to cooperate with the Committees of the House during the budget defence sessions to ensure seamless consideration and timely passage of the budget.
Motion for adoption of the budget was moved by House Majority Leader, Hon. Emeka Nwaobi and seconded by Member Representing Ika North East Constituency, Hon. Marilyn Okowa-Daramola.
The budget presentation was witnessed by the State Deputy Governor, Sir Monday Onyeme and members of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly led by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Abraham Ngobere among others.