Cross River State governor, Professor Ben Ayade on Thursday presented the 2021 appropriation bill to the State House of Assembly.
Tagged Budget of ‘Blush and Bliss’, the budget has a total estimate of N277 billion.
The sum of N192,511,985,550 representing 67 percent of the entire budget is earmarked for recurrent expenditure while N88,196,500 representing 33 percent is for capital expenditure.
The governor explained that due to the cumulative impact of the disasters that characterised the year 2020, 67 percent of the budget goes for recurrent expenditure.
Ayade said this to meet the immediate and physical needs of Cross River residents in the aftermath of the COVID-19 and #EndSARS aftermath
“I decided along with my executive council after due consultation that the budget of this year will focus more on the humanitarian perspective.
“We have decided to shift focus from infrastructure, from big projects and refocus on the people.
“So this is the people’s budget. This budget takes care of unemployment, takes care of the issues of security consistent with the provisions of the Constitution in section 14 sub Section 2,” the governor said during the presentation.
“We have decided to focus so much on Agriculture, youth Employment, Social housing, and youth skill development.”
The budget has a provision for the establishment of Neighbourhood Security Watch which is aimed at dealing with the issues of neighborhood protection and create employment for youths.
On the title of the budget, Ayade said: “Blush because we are going through a situation where our face is red and in pain, it is blush because we are coming away from our big dreams of kinetic crystallization, from our Olimpotic Agenda and reducing ourselves to a consumptive effort just to reflect the mood of the times.”