Though the Abia State Government hopes to service the 2024 budget deficit of N319 through loans, the administration is not in a hurry to draw any credit facilities.
The state commissioner for budget and planning in Abia State, Mr Kingsley Anosike, disclosed this Tuesday in Umuahia during a one-day presentation of the “Citizens Version” of the 2024 budget of Abia State with the theme New Beginning, stating that the Alex Otti administration in Abia had not drawn any loans from any institutions.
This assertion was based on misconceptions in some quarters that Otti’s administration has been borrowing to finance the massive projects he has been executing in the state.
The Commissioner disclosed that the governor’s administration has been running on public trust since it came on board, stating that although the state hoped to service the 2024 budget deficit of N319 through loans, the administration was not in a hurry to draw any credit facilities.
According to Anosike, the state government approached both local and international banks and negotiated for loans at an unprecedentedly low-interest rate, stating that, at the moment, “no dime had been so far drawn from any of the loans,” adding that some of the loans have a moratorium of 14 years attached to them.
“In principle, we have secured these loans but can only draw them when we need them. This administration is running on trust and public confidence. We are still managing with what we have saved,” he said, stating that it was not wrong but “absolutely right to borrow to fund development,” provided the fund would not be abused.
He noted, “There is no government in the world that doesn’t borrow for development. We inherited a debt of N192 billion, and we have been servicing it. But the good news is that we have not borrowed since we came on board. All that we have accomplished in the past 11 months was through our judicious management of available resources.”. Otti’s administration is committed to transparency and accountability and would not mismanage public funds.
“We came here because we think that we can make a change, and part of our vow was that we would be transparent. That’s why we have consistently published our quarterly reports for all to see. There is nothing to hide.
While explaining that the occasion was aimed at making the grassroots understand the 2024 budget to enable them to hold the government more accountable, he disclosed that many foreign donors, including UNICEF and the European Union, had on their own indicated interest in investing in the state following the growing public trust of the Ottoman-led administration, stating, “We don’t ask them to give us cash but to use their own vendors to do it according to specifications. These donors did their research and discovered on their own that we are committed to transparency.
“If it were before, the government would say, Give us the cash, and it will develop wings like the airport project,” he said.
In his speech, the state commissioner for finance, Mike Akpara, who said that the era of financial rascality by the government is over, said that the current administration places a high premium on accountability and financial responsibility, adding that serious efforts have been made to block financial leakages.
Also speaking, the Abia State Head of Service, Dr Queen Obioma, said the current administration believed so much in accountability and carrying the people along, and if it solicited support for the government, especially in its efforts to shore up the finances of the state,.
Last year, Otti presented a budget with provisions to raise N248 billion of its N567 billion total budget estimate from federation allocation, internally generated revenues (IGR, grants, and donations from donor agencies, leaving a deficit of N319.
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