Rivers 2020 Budget: Gov. Wike Sets Aside N8bn For Minimum Wage Adjustment, N5bn For New Employment

Workers in Rivers State, South South Nigeria, May be having a complete package of the 30,000 Naira minimum wage signed into law, as the State Governor, Nyesom Wike earmarks 8 Billion naira for civil servants

The governor revealed the good news at the  presentation of a budget proposal of N530.8bn to the State House of Assembly for the 2020 fiscal year, on Tuesday

The Governor also set aside 5bn naira to cover the recruitment of new employees into the state civil service.

The state’s 2020 budget was christened ‘Budget of Reassurance, profound impact for inclusive growth and shared prosperity’.

The state government in 2019 budgeted N480bn for recurrent and capital expenditure.

Presenting the 2020 budget proposal to the State House of Assembly on Tuesday, Wike said that the budget had recurrent expenditure of    N156,659,436,569.00, while capital expenditure would take N374,153,920,743.00.

Wike said, “The capital expenditure for 2020 is estimated to be N374,153,920,743.00, which constitutes nearly 70 per cent of the total budget.

“The summary of sectoral allocations of the capital expenditure are as follows; administrative sector, N15,061,008,000.00; economic sector, N136,444,523,766.60; law and justice, N2,400,000,000.00; social sector,   N138,558,553,322.35; special head, N57,367,124,462.05, and loan repayments                  N24,322,731,192.00.

“The substantial increase in capital over recurrent expenditure, once again, reflects and underscores our commitment to direct more resources to the growth and productive sectors of our economy.

“This administration is poised to fulfill every promise it made to our people. Consequently, various expenditure portfolios have been allocated to all the relevant MDAs to fund capital expenditures and deliver physical and socio-economic infrastructure and development for our people.”

“The sum of N70,227,748,472.32 is earmarked for salaries and wages; N8,000,000,000.00 for the new minimum wage, while N18,429,375,634.45 is for overheads.

“Also, N5,000,000,000.00 is set aside for new recruitments, N3,000,000,000.00 as counterpart fund for pensions, N900,000,000.00 for death benefits and N33,176,728,931.33 as monthly pensions and gratuities.

“Government has also provided over N400,000,000.00 as counterpart contributions for donor programmes.”

Wike stated that the sum of N93.9bn had been provided for the Ministry of Works to continue to fund the strategic road development programme for 2020.