The Anambra State government has said that it is optimistic that its 2019 budget will receive over 80 per cent implementation, saying that the state has remained top in budget performance since Governor Willie Obiano took the reins of power in the state.
This was disclosed by the state Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr Mark Okoye, at a news conference on the 2020 proposed budget presented to the Anambra State House of Assembly two weeks ago.
Okoye said, “The good thing about Anambra is that we present budget that we can implement 100 per cent. There is no use presenting N1 trillion budget that would end up with just 10 per cent implementation.
“In Anambra, we plan with internally generated revenue, rather than on external revenue. We do this because internal revenue is sure, but external can fail. There can be a dip in oil price, or federal government can fail in payment.
“This has been our tactics and it has been working for us. That is why every year, we register 60, 70 and even 80 percent performance in our budget, when other states are finding it difficult to hit 50 per cent.
“Last year, even the federal government could barely achieve 30 per cent, but we were able to achieve 70 per cent of our budget. This year, we already have a half year budget performance, which was in June. We have registered 83 per cent in recurrent expenditure and about 87 per cent in capital expenditure. We are hopeful that at the end of the year, we will have an overall performance of over 80 per cent, and that is very huge,” Okoye said.