Bayelsa: Finishing strong on development, stability and prosperity

The 2018 budget estimates of Bayelsa State is unique for the simple reason that it encapsulates the first step of Governor Henry Seriake Dickson’s pragmatic approach to the development of the state in the last two years of his second tenure and has a capital vote component that is about 50 percent of the total budget figure.

Christened ‘Finishing Strong on Development, Stability and Prosperity 1’, it gives an insight into how the state government aims to tackle the various developmental challenges which the governor identified as “critical areas that our government planned as foundation for the greatness of our state.”

The 2018 Budget estimates of N295.2 billion therefore addresses many of the critical issues in these areas which include education, healthcare, economic expansion, agriculture, tourism and investment in infrastructure by allocating appropriate funds for various signature projects.

As Governor Dickson noted while presenting the budget estimates to the state House of Assembly, the year 2017 was a groundbreaking year and very challenging due to the state of the national economy and poor earnings, but Bayelsa State was able to move on to very solid ground.

The revenue projections for the total 2018 budget of N295,203,033,453.00 (an increase of N73.923 billion or 33.41 percent over the N221.28 billion 2017 budget) are statutory allocation of N200,009,320,110.00 or 67.75 percent, value added tax (VAT) of N8,506,137,593.00 or 2.88 percent, internally generated revenue (IGR) of N24,000,000,000 or 8.13 percent and capital receipts of N62,687,575,750 or 21.24 percent.

Recurrent expenditure is put at N146.616 billion which is N11.656 billion more than the 2017 figure of N136.96 billion: of the amount, personnel cost would gulp N48,015,849,073 or 16.27 percent of the budget, overhead cost is estimated at N42,576,004,000 or 14.42 percent, consolidated revenue fund charges of N58,024,000,000 or 19.66 percent while capital expenditure is N146,587,180,380 or 49.66 percent, which is an increase of 73.85 percent over the N84.317 billion capital vote for 2017.

What this indicates is that the state government would expend nearly half of the budget on infrastructure, which is a shift towards acceptable global budgetary practice unlike in the past when recurrent expenditure took more than a fair share of the annual budgets.

However, of the N58,024,000,000 budgeted for consolidated revenue fund charges, payment of pensions and gratuities would take N6,000,000,000, public debt charges, N24,000,000,000, transfer to G32 or rural development authorities is N3,510,000,000, transfer to local government pension board, N514,000,000 and others including deductions by FAAC to the tune of N24,000,000,000.

From the above, pensioners in the state have cause to smile as it is easily deducible that the government of Governor Dickson is set to meet its obligations to pensioners as a whooping N6.0 billion is being earmarked for the payment pension and gratuities to civil servants with another component of N3.51 billion and N514 million going to the G32 and LG Pension Board respectively.

It must also be noted that the state government is set to loose so much to FAAC deductions which stand at an estimated N24 billion: these include the deductions for the N50 billion loan, over payments of 13 percent derivation to other states, deductions for foreign loans and commercial agricultural schemes among others.

However, the most exciting aspect of the budget is its huge capital outlay of N146.59 billion which is being earmarked to fund major capital projects including roads, schools, hospitals and other projects in the tourism, power, agriculture and trade and industry.

Over the past few years, the state government has taken strong steps to advance the three senatorial roads from Nembe to Brass in the east, Yenagoa to Oporoma in the Central Senatorial District and from Sagbama to Ekeremor, which is the first stretch of the Sagbama-Ekeremor-Agge road in the West Senatorial District.

The road from Nembe to Brass looks the most challenging of the three as almost all of it would be through marshy mangrove forests for a distance of over 40 kilometres and as Dickson told the lawmakers, the government has “reached tentative agreements with some of its development partners and intends to bring all of them for final meetings” to begin the award process this year.

On the Yenagoa-Oporoma road, the target is to get to Oporoma while at the western flank, the effort is to take the road to Ekeremor by the end of the year; and all these as well as improvement of the internal road network in the capital, Yenagoa in addition to completion of some key signature road projects such as the Isaac Boro Expressway which are of great importance.

There is also the International Cargo Airport which is expected to receive its first commercial flight this year and the preliminary works on the very critical Agge Deep Seaport project where the Army Engineering Corps have done initial survey taking the allocation for works and infrastructure to N36.641 billion.

Aside infrastructure, another area that is critical to the state government is education where over N50 billion has been expended in the past six years and is witnessing iconic model secondary schools, constituency schools and tertiary institutions which are changing the narrative in the state.

The free education policy is now firmly rooted and over 5,000 students are “receiving free, compulsory and qualitative education” at no cost to their parents and guardians, the Foundation School of the University of Africa has graduated its first set of students and all is now set for the degree programmes to commence at the university.

A state owned polytechnic is also set to take off and Governor Dickson said the polytechnic “is to undertake training and manpower development at the low and middle level, and promote entrepreneurship, self development and ultimately prosperity in our future leaders.”

Of note is the presence of the Education Development Trust Fund which is established by law and described by the governor as “a dependable and reliable mechanism for preserving these educational legacies and investments going forward.”

Tertiary institutions would receive grants this year, emphasis would be on training and retraining of teachers and a new policy on education would be introduced which would also spell out a staffing policy in all public schools in the state as part of efforts to reduce wastage and improve standards in addition to the constitution of a Teacher Retraining, Registration and Certification Board.

In healthcare, Dickson has surpassed himself in establishing the diagnostic centre, Government House Specialist Hospital and standard hospitals ranging in capacity between 80 and 100 beds in most of the local government headquarters and cottage hospitals and health centres as strong base for the launching of the health insurance fund.

This resulted in the establishment of the health insurance scheme which has captured over 300,000 citizens just as civil servants and political appointees are already contributing towards the scheme which is aimed at addressing the issue of affordable healthcare for vulnerable groups in the society.

Out of the N10billion allocated to the health sector, the state Health Team is expected to work towards ensuring that each ward has a functional healthcare facility with trained nurses, personnel and accommodation for the healthcare workers before the end of the year.

As an added boost, the Bayelsa Drug Mart and Pharmaceutical Centre is already in operation and would reduce the incidence of fake and adulterated drugs while making available original products at affordable prices since the state would be dealing directly with drug manufacturers.

In the area of housing and urban development, N10 billion is earmarked to build houses for civil servants who would be given certificate of occupancy in designated estates, and in some cases, such housing development efforts would be in collaboration with the private sector.

Governor Dickson also use the occasion of the budget presentation to affirm the position of his government on ongoing civil service reforms in order to address indiscipline, block wastage and leakages while promoting professionalism and productivity.

He urged all those who are “suspected of not properly being in the system for one reason or the other” to feel free to appear before the Commission of Enquiry as all those involved in one category or the other of malpractice or misconduct would be shown the way out.

In summary, the allocations are Ministry of Agriculture, N4.0 billion; Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment, N4.0 billion; Ministry of Power, N6.5 billion; Ministry of Transport, N3.0 billion; Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, N36.641 billion; Ministry of Education, N22 billion; Ministry of Health, N10 billion; Ministry of Environment, N1.19 billion and Ministry of Housing & Urban Development, N10 billion.

Others are Ministry of Lands and Survey, N1.5 billion; Ministry of Sports Development, N2.5 billion; Ministry of Community Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, N2.5 billion; Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, N13.103 billion; Ministry of Special Projects, N1.5 billion; Ministry of Culture and Ijaw National Affairs, N1.5 billion and Ministry of Justice, N.64 billion.

Ministry of Special Duties Central Senatorial District got N.384 billion; Ministry of Special Duties East Senatorial District, N.39 billion; Ministry of Special Duties West Senatorial District, N.379 billion; Ministry of Mineral Resources, N.45 billion; Ministry of Information, N2.0 billion; Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, N1.2 billion and Ministry of Local Government Administration, N1.2 billion.

The others are Ministry of Water Resources, N1.4 billion; Ministry of Youth Development, N2.0 billion; Ministry of Science and Technology and Manpower Development, N1.0 billion; Bayelsa State Planning and Development Board, N4.0 billion; Ministry of Finance, N1.0 billion and Ministry of Tourism Development, N2.0 billion.

Commenting on the budget, the Director-General of the Yenagoa Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (YECCIMA), Warmate Jones Idikio said “the provision for the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment at N4.0 billion is a great improvement over previous budgets and this gives some hope for better private sector partnership and economic stimulation.

“Added to this is the new focus on entrepreneurship and vocational training through the Entrepreneurship Development Centre, the New Bayelsa State Polytechnic, Aleibiri etc. These are good markers that a properly funded and implemented budget will greatly impact the state’s economy in the medium and long term.”

Idikio however, raised concern whether the revenue projections can be achieved and noted that though the N48 billion personnel cost presupposes an injection of N4.0 billion monthly into the economy, it would not impact on the economy due to capital flight as the bulk of goods and services are provided by non-indigenes who import same into the state.

 

Samuel Ese, Yenagoa