Ayade explains reason behind N1.1trn budget

Cross River State governor, Ben Ayade has said he proposed massive N1.1 trillion budget for 2020 because the prosperity agenda he set for the state does not allow him the opportunity of an envelope budgeting.

The governor who took to his twitter handle, @senatorbenayade on Friday to talk about the budget, argued that any state whose budget is driven by the envelope size is limited in vision.

“Yesterday, I presented an appropriation bill of N1.1trillion for the 2020 fiscal year. Tagged “Budget of Olimpotic Meristemasis,” It has a capital expenditure of N911bn representing 82.8% of the budget and a recurrent expenditure of N188bn, representing 17.2% of the budget,” he wrote.

“We must come to the understanding that indeed any state whose budget is driven by the envelope size is limited in vision. The prosperity agenda set for CRS does not allow me the opportunity of an envelope budgeting.

“There are two ways in business and public sector management that you derive your budget. It is either that your budget comes as an expression of your envelope size or as an expression of your ambition.

“Our budget prescribes the actual cost element while the intellectual financing shuns the cost because the ambition so expressed allows us the latitude to drive with to ensure that we guarantee that all aspects of the budget so provided are driven.”

Ayade budget, however, defies logic. Cross River is one of the least revenue earning states in the country with an annual internally generated revenue of about N18 billion and yearly federal allocation of less than N48 billion.

A combination of the the two revenue sources amounts to about N66billion, not up to N100 billion.

Meanwhile, the state is already one of the most indebted in the country with foreign debt profile of $148 million, behind only Lagos and Edo. And domestic debt profile of N168 billion, again, one of the highest in the country.