A-Ibom Assembly passes N672.9bn appropriation bill into law

Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly has passed the state appropriation bill of N672.984 billion for the 2019 fiscal year into law.

This is against the N670.718billion budget proposal presented by the state governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel on November 13, 2018 on the floor of the House.

The 2019 appropriation bill was passed yesterday, after the consideration and adoption of the report submitted by the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation chaired by Mr. Usoro Akpansoh, member representing Ibeno/Esit Eket state constituency.

In his remarks, Speaker of the House Mr. Onofiok Luke said they tailored the 2019 Appropriation Bill christened, “Budget of Industrialisation for Poverty Alleviation,” to meet salient socio-economic agenda of the government in the areas of infrastructure development, job creation and revenue generation.

He said, “And to keep the budget in sync with current needs and having considered the opinions of Akwa Ibom people and stakeholders, we decided to increase the total budget by a little over N2 billion to bring the 2019 estimate to N672.98 billion.

“It must be emphasised that what we approved emanated from the wishes of stakeholders who considered the parameters for the 2019 proposal during the public hearing on the budget.

“Our overall objective was to see that priority was given to areas of immediate importance to the people while we pursue the larger goal of full-scale industrialisation.

This House believes that the 2019 Appropriation Bill, having been anchored on identified needs of the people will give impetus for our sustained industrial development.”

“It gives all of us great joy therefore, to play the noble role which we have played to see that this bill becomes a law on this day. I commend our collective resilience and loyalty to the people whose mandate we hold,” he said.

Source: Vanguard