Okowa presents N561.8bn Budget Estimate for 2023

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State has presented a budget estimate of N561.8 billion for the 2023 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly for legislation.

The budget tagged ‘Budget of Seamless and Stable Transition’ has an increase of 17 per cent over the 2022 budget.

The budget has capital expenditure of N326.6 billion, representing 58% of the total expenditure budget and an increase of N82 billion or 17% growth from the 2022 budget; and recurrent expenditure of N235.2 billion, representing 42% of the total expenditure and an increase of N42 billion or 25% from the 2022 budget.

Okowa said the budget would be mainly funded through Internally Generated Revenue.

Governor Okowa highlighted: “The signs are obvious with a performance of 89 per cent of the budget in the first nine months of the current year. We shall continue to sustain and improve on the measures taken thus far, which culminated in the increased revenue profile.

“While new sources of revenue are being explored, we shall also intensify enforcement of appropriate tax legislation.

“It is, therefore, our projection to generate the sum of N95 billion as IGR in 2023, representing 17 per cent of the total projected revenues for the year.”

In considering the macro-economic framework for the 2023 to 2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), the governor said he took into consideration the national inflation, the real GDP growth derived from the National Bureau of Statistics and the Federal Government’s assumptions for the preparation of the 2023 budget before arriving on a benchmark oil price of 70 US dollars per barrel; daily oil production benchmark of N1.69 million barrels, exchange rate of N435.57 per us dollar; and GDP growth projected at 3.75 percent and inflation closing at 17.16 percent.

The governor declared that the 2023 budget is targeted at completion of all on-going projects and loan repayment.