Benue State Governor Rev Haven’t Hyacinth Alia, yesterday presented the sum of N550.1bn as the 2025 appropriation bill to the Benue State House of Assembly for consideration and passage into law.
Alia told the lawmakers that out of the total budget size, N175.4 billion is for recurrent expenditure while the N374.7 billion is for capital expenditure.
The Governor said that the total estimate represented a 47.5 %increment over the 2024 revised and approved figure of N373 billion.
He stated that the appropriation bill tagged “Budget of Human Capital Development, Food Security, and Digital Economy” was to consolidate the gains made in 2024.
Alia further explained that the proposed recurrent expenditure of N175.4 billion was 13.55% higher than the previous year.
According to him, budgeted capital expenditure of N374.7 billion represents a 71.5% increment on the 2024 revised capital expenditure.
“The budget breakdown indicated that the sum of N212.2 billion, representing 38.52 per cent is for administration; N196.6 billion, representing 35.68% is for the economy; law and justice will take N26.6 billion, representing 4.84 per cent while social welfare will gulp N115.5 billion, representing 20.96%.
“We have the vision. We have the will. And most importantly, we have the people ready to work alongside us to turn this vision into reality.
“Together, we will build a state where every citizen has the opportunity to succeed, where food is plentiful, and where the digital economy opens new frontiers of opportunity for all”,he said.
The governor said the intention of the government was to stay within the limits of its recurring revenue to build the state without accruing unnecessary debts for generations unborn.
He, however, said that since the 2025 budget was a deficit one, it proposed a borrowing plan of a conservative sum of N26bn, representing a modest 4.7% of the proposed aggregate expenditure for 2025.
“This is lower than the state’s debt-to-GDP ratio of 8.2% which is within the benchmark of the 25% debt sustainability threshold.
“Despite these favourable debt ratios, I want to reiterate that borrowing will only be considered as a last resort and for regenerative investment purposes,” he added.
Alia stated that the problem of Internally Displaced Persons ,IDPs)
, remained a challenge, adding that they have reasonably improved their living conditions.
He said the Bureau of International Cooperation and Development has elicited substantial grants from donors, totalling N85bn.
