FINANCE

Ortom Gives Account of N734 Billion Eight Years Accrual To Benue State

<h4> Ortom Gives Account of N734 Billion Eight Years Accrual To Benue State<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a> <&sol;strong>reports that Governor of Benue State&comma; Samuel Ortom has formally given a highlight of the finances during his tenure and presented handover notes of his eight years administration to the Governor-elect of the State&comma; Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Ortom was elected Governor in 2015 and re-elected for a second term in 2019&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The Governor made the presentation at a brief ceremony on Sunday&comma; May 28th&comma; 2023 at the old Banquet Hall of Benue Peoples House&comma; Makurdi&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He said handover notes&comma; which are three volumes&comma; contain sectoral briefs as well as briefs on all the Ministries&comma; Departments and Agencies &lpar;MDAs&rpar; of the State Civil Service and briefs on the key programmes that were implemented by his administration<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;Your Excellency&comma; although the handover notes I am signing with you today encapsulate the essentials of my administration’s eight years in office&comma; I consider it pertinent to give highlights on income&comma; expenditure&comma; debt profile and pension within the time span of my administration&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;The total income that accrued to the State within the tenure of my administration from all sources &lpar;Statutory income&comma; Value Added Tax&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;vanguardngr&period;com&sol;">Internally Generated Revenue&comma; other FAAC incomes including Grants&comma; refunds&comma; and loans&rpar; was N734&period;96bn as at 30th April&comma; 2023&period;<&sol;a><br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;The total expenditure on both recurrent items &lpar;salary&comma; wages&comma; pension and gratuity&comma; overhead or cost of running government services&comma; loan service obligations&comma; refunds&comma; remittances to Local Government Councils&rpar; and capital expenditure amounted to N735&period;6bn as at 30th April 2023&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;The total indebtedness of the Benue State Government at this time of the exit of my administration from office is N187&period;56bn&period; This is inclusive of salary and pension arrears&comma; loans and bonds as well as outstanding contractual obligations&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Governor Ortom stated&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Governor explained that his administration has taken proactive steps to negotiate and ensure significant debt reduction&comma; reliefs for the state&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He gave the breakdown as a total debt swap between the Federal Government and State Government to the tune of N71&period;6bn&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;According to the Governor&comma; the inflows being expected were a backlog of accumulated Stamp Duties of N48bn&comma; refund from debt swap with the Federal Government to the tune of N22&period;95bn&comma; amounting to N70&period;95bn&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He emphasised that &&num;8220&semi;by the time you discount or factor in the negotiated debt swap and the expected inflows&comma; the State would attain a debt reduction&comma; bringing down the State’s debt profile to N45&period;2bn<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;In addition&comma; Benue State has outstanding approvals awaiting disbursement from the Federal Government including&colon; balance of bailout N41bn&comma; CBN facilities &lpar;referred to as Central Bank of Nigeria DCRR&rpar; of N20bn&period;&&num;8221&semi;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He further explained that his administration had introduced pension reforms stating that over N8bn has been raised under the Contributory Pension Scheme&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;While congratulating the incoming Governor&comma; Ortom advised him that after he would be sworn-in and formed his cabinet&comma; he could invite Permanent Secretaries and Chief Executive Officers of MDAs to brief him and his team and thus throw additional light on their submissions&sol;briefs as contained in the handover notes&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;In a brief response&comma; the Governor-elect&comma; Rev&period; Fr&period; Hyacinth Alia expressed appreciation to Governor Ortom for his service to fatherland in the state and for the handover notes he presented to him&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Governor Ortom and incoming Governor&comma; Fr&period; Ortom later appended their signatures to handover notes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;20319" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-20319" style&equals;"width&colon; 300px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-20319" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2023&sol;04&sol;Samuel-Ortom-300x158&period;webp" alt&equals;"Ortom Gives Account of N734 Billion Eight Years Accrual To Benue State" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"158" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-20319" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em><strong>Benue State outgoing Governor Othom<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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