- Inflationary trend, new N70,000 minimum wage influenced increase’
The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has signed into law the 2024 revised supplementary budget of N404bn with an increase of 22 percent.
Speaking during the signing of the budget at the Government House, Benin City, Obaseki said the revised budget has become necessary following the inflationary trend in the economy as the adjustments have to reflect new realities.
According to him, “I have signed into law the revised supplementary budget for Edo State. We have to amend the 2024 Appropriation Act which was passed late last year because of developments that have occurred in the economy in the first five months of the year.
“We have to increase our budget by about 22 percent, to about N404 billion from the earlier projected figures. The reason we had to do this is because from the first quarter of this year, we saw a 100 percent budget performance for that period.
“Also, because of the inflationary trend in the economy, we have had to adjust our capital budget to reflect the new trend we are seeing. We also had to make a decision on the minimum wage which has financial implications. We didn’t anticipate that in the earlier appropriation law which we have had to amend.”
He added, “We expect that even with the revised and supplementary appropriation bill, we will meet the target which is N404 billion, which is now the proposed budget for the year. What is important to note is that we are still spending more on capital than recurrent expenditure.”
