BY ANAYO OKOLI

Abia State government has earmarked N10 billion for servicing of debt, both foreign and domestic this fiscal year. This was contained in the state’s 2012 budget breakdown presented by the Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Nick Eleri.

According to Eleri, this was arrived at after the visit of the Debt Management Office to the state to review operations of the state and also conducted a review of the debt data reconstruction exercise.

“The report from the Debt Management office shows that the debt profile of the state is within the acceptable debt threshold.

“Consequently, the state government will this year give foreign and domestic debt servicing a facelift,” the commissioner explained.

The breakdown of the budget also showed that the Office of the Governor, Government House, are to receive 33% of the total budget, while allocations to Ministry of Education accounted for 19.06%.

Meanwhile, the Finance Commissioner has been charged to ensure that the budget was properly implemented.

Speaker of the House of Assembly, Ude Oko Chukwu, gave him the charge during the defence of the budget.

The speaker, represented by the Chairman, House Committee on Budget Defence, Martins Azubuike, stated the resolve of the House to monitor and ensure that implementation of the budget was in line with its provisions.