Governor Ben Ayade, has presented a budget of N276 billion before Rivers House of Assembly, on Friday.
Ayade stated that the budget titled ‘Conjugated Agglutination’ was a continuation of budgets of past years with no new capital projects intended for the year.
He said, “The state budget for the 2022 fiscal year is N276 billion. Out of this, N101 billion is for recurrent expenditure and N175 billion is for capital expenditure.
“We are going to focus on completing existing projects with the view to making them functional.
“Regular payment of salaries is also a priority in the 2022 fiscal year.”
Ayade said that government set aside a special fund for payment of gratuities of retired civil servants in the state.
According to him, this is to ensure a gradual reduction of backlog of gratuities owed retirees in the state.
“It is my dream that all retirees get their gratuities with less stress,” the governor said.
He sought the support of the house of assembly for speedy passage of the budget.
“I also appeal that you and other well meaning citizens of Cross River join in the task of delivering on our numerous developmental projects for the benefit of our people,” he said.
In his remark, the Speaker of the House, Etteng Williams, assured the governor that House would do anything possible within its capacity to ensure the budget is pass as soon as possible.
“We will corporate with you to deliver on this administration’s laudable projects through early passage of the budget,” he stated.
