Udom Emmanuel, Akwa Ibom’s Governor on Monday, signed the state’s 2022 Appropriation Bill into law.
The ₦586.9bn budget, which was passed by the state House of Assembly on Thursday, is made up of ₦261.96bn recurrent expenditure and ₦324.92bn capital expenditure.
The Governor after assenting to the bill during an expanded Executive Council meeting, commended the House of Assembly, Ministry of Finance, Budget Office, Accountant General and other government agencies involved in the budgetary process for the timely passage.
He said, “It became expedient to sign the bill early enough in the week to allow for smooth winding down of the year 2021 and take-off of 2022, considering nearness to Christmas, the accompanying holidays and envisaged reduced productivity of the state’s predominantly Christian workforce.
“We are believing that with God on our side, 2022 will be better than 2021.”
Salary, Pension
Emmanuel told the state’s Accountant General, Pastor Andrew Essien, to ensure payment of salaries and pension of public servants and retirees in the state on or before December 23 to support their Yuletide celebration.
He said, “I have given an order to the Accountant General to try and pay civil servants’ salaries almost immediately. We are a Christian state, whether Federal Government gives us money or not, we must look for money anywhere to make sure that our people hold their Christmas.
‘’We need at least N10bn to be able to pay salaries and pensioners must also be paid. It has to be done between now and Thursday because Friday is Christmas Eve.”
