Governor Ben Ayade of Cross Rivers presents N1.3trn Budget for 2018

Cross River state governor, Ben Ayade has presented a budget of N1.3 trillion for the 2018 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly for deliberation and passage.

Ayade, who presented the budget on Thursday in Calabar, said that the proposal was designed to add value to the socio-economic development and well being of the people of the state. He tagged the budget as “Budget of Kinetic Crystallisation’’ and said it was meant to crystallise what the state had achieved in the past two years of his administration.

He said that the priority of the budget was to develop the state’s deep sea port and the super highway which he said were his two marked projects. The governor said that 70 per cent of the budget was for capital expenditure and 30 per cent,re-current expenditure.

According to him, the size of the budget is expected to create room for potential investors, now that the annual construction of the state deep sea port and superhighway has commenced. He added that the budget was for actualisation and implementation of the state deep sea port, super highway and other laudable projects earmarked for completion.

“The 2018 budget of N13.trillion, tagged `Kinetic Crystallisations’, is meant to drive the economy of the state to an enviable height. The sum of N126billion was budgeted for the Ministry of Infrastructure. This is to help us develop critical assets in the state. N7 billion was also budgeted for the state job centre with a view to helping us train our unemployed youths with marketable job skills. Also, we have budgeted N2billion for our school feeding programme. In addition to that, we also budgeted N52billion for social welfare to care for the aged. My administration is human friendly and my desire is to ensure that every family has what to eat before going to bed,’’ he said.