The Rivers State governor, Siminialayi Fubara, has presented the state’s 2025 Appropriation Bill of 1.19tn to the Victor Oko-Jumbo-led House of Assembly.
Presenting the appropriation bill, Fubara said out of the amount, N462bn was projected for Recurrent Expenditure while Capital Expenditure was to gulp N678bn.
Fubara said the planning reserve stood at N35.7bn with a closing balance of N12.9bn noting that the 44:56% was an indication of his government’s sincere commitment to both infrastructural and human capital development in the state.
The governor said the 2025 budget was premised on achieving sustainable economic growth, accelerating the development of the state, and improving the living standards of the people.
He said: “Therefore, it contains policy measures and objectives that will strengthen our capacity to weather possible external shocks from the volatility of the national economy to build the resilience of our economy and advance our collective development and prosperity.
It is for this reason that we have the theme for the 2025 Budget as a Budget of inclusive growth and development”.
Fubara said the budget was premised on the assumptions of an oil price benchmark of $80 per barrel, an oil production rate of 1.8 million barrels per day, a USD exchange rate of 1500/1, and a 22% inflation rate.
He said the government also projected improved contributions from the non-oil sectors to the national economy, including substantial receipts from value-added and exchange gains.
He also said that the government projected a GDP growth rate of 3.18% for the state, increasing internally generated revenue to not less than 35% of the total Budget and reducing the fiscal deficit by limiting, if not outright, freezing, resorting to domestic borrowing for budget funding and augmentation.
He said the government would expand the internal tax base by bringing more people into the tax net, saving money, and investing more in the critical sectors that would strengthen the State’s economic foundations and enhance development.
Fubara said: “We will further improve the ease of doing business and provide incentives to attract local and foreign direct investments into the state to stimulate economic growth, improve internal revenue generation, and enhance job creation.
“The overall objective of this is to pursue as much as possible and achieve a realistic budget that significantly closes the gap between estimates and possible actuals.
“We are therefore confident that the 2025 appropriation estimate is the true reflection of the reality of the state of our economy with reasonable flexibility that allows for eminent shocks from the current challenges with the national economy and macroeconomic frameworks”.
The governor named the financial sources of the 2025 budget an Internally Generated Revenue of N264.4bn; Statutory Allocation, N18.2bn; Mineral funds N132bn; Value Added Tax N204bn; Refunds Escrow, Paris/ECA N31bn and Refunds from bank charges N27. 5bn.
Others are Excess Crude Account, N20.6bn; Exchange rate gain N25.2bn; Forex equalization, N50bn; other FAAC N50bn; Asset sales; N25bn; Capital receipts, 9.8bn; Proposed internal grants, N60bn; Proposed External Grants N7.5bn; Proposed Loans/Bonds, 250bn and Prior year Balance of N12.9bn.
The governor broke down the components of the Recurrent Expenditure as Personnel Emolument N169.7bn; New Recruitments, N49bn; Overhead costs, N20bn; Grants, contributions, and subsidies, N9.6bn; Counterpart pension scheme, N15bn; Gratuities, N60bn; Death Benefits, N18bn and Monthly pensions, N30bn.
Others are Domestic loans interest, N30.2bn; Foreign loan interest, 6.4bn; Domestic loan principal repayment N29bn; Foreign loan, principal repayment N14.97bn; FAAC Deductions, N3.7bn; COT/Charges/General Admin N5bn; Reimbursements, N60m; Harmonization, N840bn and Consolidated Revenue Fund Charges N391bn.
On Sectorial allocations of Capital Expenditure, the governor said the governance would gulp, N213.585bn! Information and Communication N3.404bn; Public Administration, N21.110bn; Finance and Planning, N11.143bn; Agriculture; N30.954bn; Infrastructure, N195bn; Commerce and Investment, 2. 723bn; Culture and Tourism, N2.104bn; Education, N63. 275bn; Health, N97,750bn; Social Development, N15. 477bn! Environment/Sustainable Development N12. 877bn and Judiciary, Law and Justice, N8. 605bn.
Fubara said besides aligning with the fiscal reality, the 2025 budget prioritized the fundamental objectives of building a secure, prosperous, and resilient state with inclusive economic growth, sustainable development, and improved standards of living for everyone.
“Consequently, our core priorities for the 2025 fiscal year include agriculture, economic growth, quality education and healthcare delivery, basic infrastructure, and social investments”.
“Therefore, today we are presenting a budget that would empower us to consolidate the past gains, stimulate further investments into our economy, and take our dear State to the next level of economic growth, social progress, and shared prosperity,” he added.
