Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state has presented the 2023 Appropriation Bill of N550.7billion tagged: ‘Budget of Consolidation and Continuity‘, to the House of Assembly for consideration.
Presenting the budget yesterday in Port Harcourt, Wike said his administration projected N351billion as capital expenditure for the 2023 fiscal year.
He said: “This amount represents about 63.2% of the total budget and conforms to our practice of prioritising capital expenditure over recurrent.”
Under capital expenditure, Wike said the state would spend N114.3billion on infrastructure, N37billion specifically on education and N31.5billion on health.”
Explaining further, he said: “Accordingly, the sum of N114.3billion is provided in the 2023 capital budget estimate to fund the completion of ongoing roads and other physical infrastructural projects awarded by our administration.”
In the 2023 budget proposal, the governor said his administration had also proposed a recurrent expenditure of N175.3billion, representing about 31% of the total budget for the 2023 fiscal year.
He said in 2023, the state would spend N73.5billion on salaries of ministries, departments and parastatals; N 7.8billion on new recruitment; N33.6 on monthly pensions as well as N12billion on gratuities and death benefits.
Wike said the fiscal year 2023 budget was targeted at delivering economic growth, additional infrastructure and prosperity for citizens.
Speaker Ikuinyi-Owaji Ibani noted that Wike had through prudent allocation of resources put in place a roadmap for the development of the state.
Ibani, who hailed the governor for his achievements in the past seven years, said his infrastructural projects would positively impact on the development of the state in future.
