Delta Assembly Passes N308.9bn 2018 State Budget

The Delta State House Assembly on Thursday, November 30, 2017 passed into law, the 2018 Budget of N308,888,558,898bn for the State, reflecting an increase from the proposed N298.078bn presented by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to the House on October 29, 2017.

The House which was determined to pass the budget into law before December, suspended it rules to enable members sit beyond 1pm and the budget was passed at about 5pm.

Moving the motion for the passage of the 2018 Appropriation Law, the Majority Leader Hon. Tim Kome Owhefere, moved that the House should resolve itself into a committee of supply. At the Committee of Supply, the Appropriation Bill with the annexures was considered clause by clause and sector by sector.

Presenting a report on the 2018 Budget, Acting Chairman, House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Hon. Emeka Nwaobi stated that the 2018 budget was prepared with the current and prevailing International Public Sector Accounting (IPSA) specification and standard. Nwaobi also noted that the preparation of the budget took into consideration important micro economic framework among which are: national inflation, oil production benchmark, USD exchange rate, etc, and finally the budget was tied to well defined and specific projects which the State government intends to execute.

Speaker, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori afterwards thanked members for working assiduously towards the passage of the appropriation bill and for once again putting the State at the fore front of being the first State in the country to pass its budget in record time.