The Rivers State Sole Administrator, Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas Thursday defended the N1. 846 trillion 2025 budget before the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Oversight of Emergency Rule in Rivers State.
By Haruna Salami
The Rivers State Sole Administrator, Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas Thursday defended the N1. 846 trillion 2025 budget before the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Oversight of Emergency Rule in Rivers State.
The Sole Administrator explained that the original budget framework, 85% of which was inherited from the previous administration was revised upward by about 15% to address three critical areas:
Clearing ₦50 billion in pension and gratuity arrears, funding emergency security and peacebuilding initiatives, and legally integrating first-quarter expenditures made before emergency rule was declared.
These additions brought the total projected expenditure to ₦1.846 trillion, compared to ₦793.5 billion in 2024.
The Administrator added that the budget “isn’t just about roads and bridges, it’s about people who have served this state and are now aging without their entitlements. It’s about farmers who need safe roads. It’s about young people who need jobs”.
The budget proposal equally takes care of the eventual restoration of constitutional order, retaining legal provisions for the offices and functions of suspended political actors.
A breakdown of the budget include ₦1.072 trillion (72.4%) is allocated for capital projects—a sharp contrast to most state budgets where recurrent expenditure dominates. Only ₦408.4 billion (27.5%) is reserved for recurrent spending, with a negligible portion going to overheads.
Key sectorial allocations include:
₦324.5 billion for roads, bridges, and transport infrastructure
₦55 billion for upgrading the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital
₦30 billion for secondary schools and ₦5.75 billion for primary education rehabilitation
₦38.85 billion for shoreline protection and erosion control
₦10 billion to boost food production and agriculture
₦50 billion to offset pension liabilities
₦20 billion to recapitalize the Rivers Microfinance Bank for MSMEs.
One interesting part of budget is the plan to spend ₦3 billion on a youth innovation centre and ₦2.5 billion on women’s economic empowerment.
The Chairman, Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Oversight of Emergency Rule in Rivers State, who is also the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, in his remarks said “what we are seeing is a deliberate attempt to reset the economy and expand social equity. For a state under emergency rule, this budget is more than numbers, it’s a peace plan.”
On the revenue side of the ₦1.846 trillion budget, the Rivers State government projects ₦550 billion from the Federation Account (FAAC), ₦360.46 billion from independent revenue sources, ₦67.6 billion from grants and aid, ₦250 billion from loans and credit facilities, ₦220.8 billion in opening balance from prior fiscal operations.
The state debt component rose from ₦237 billion in 2024 to ₦250 billion, which now makes up 16.6% of the total budget, just as debt servicing alone is projected at ₦120.8 billion, a staggering 57.9% increase from the previous year.
Although Senator Bamidele praised the Administrator’s presentation,the however0 cautioned that the approval of the budget would not signal the end of legislative oversight.
“We are not here for formality. We will follow the money. We will track the projects. We will hold you accountable, line by line, ministry by ministry”, he warned.