Benue State Governor, Rev. Hyacinth Alia Visits State University Teaching Hospital

Rev. Hyacinth Alia, the Benue State Governor, on Wednesday, paid a visit to the Benue State University Teaching Hospital.

The Benue State government revealed this in an Instagram post via it handle.

The state government also shared some Pictures from the visit where they were captioned,

“The Executive Governor of Benue State, Rev Fr. Dr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia, earlier today made an unscheduled visit to Benue State University Teaching Hospital.”

This comes barely two days after the new state governor took over the mantle leadership from the former state Governor.

See photos below;

In other news, the former Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom had on the 29th of May, 2023 formally presented handover notes of his eight years administration to the Governor-elect of the State, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia.

It could be noted that Ortom was elected Governor in 2015 and re-elected for a second term in 2019.

He said handover notes, which are three volumes, contain sectoral briefs as well as briefs on all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the State Civil Service and briefs on the key programmes that were implemented by his administration

“Your Excellency, although the handover notes I am signing with you today encapsulate the essentials of my administration’s eight years in office, I consider it pertinent to give highlights on income, expenditure, debt profile and pension within the timespan of my administration.

“The total income that accrued to the State within the tenure of my administration from all sources (Statutory income, Value Added Tax, Internally Generated Revenue, other FAAC incomes including Grants, refunds, and loans) was N734.96bn as at 30th April, 2023.

“The total expenditure on both recurrent items (salary/wages, pension and gratuity, overhead or cost of running government services, loan service obligations, refunds/remittances to Local Government Councils) and capital expenditure amounted to N735.6bn as at 30th April 2023.

“The total indebtedness of the Benue State Government at this time of the exit of my administration from office is N187.56bn. This is inclusive of salary and pension arrears, loans and bonds as well as outstanding contractual obligations,” Governor Ortom stated.

He stressed that his administration has taken proactive steps to negotiate and ensure significant debt reduction/reliefs for the state.

Ortom also gave the breakdown as a total debt swap between the Federal Government and State Government to the tune of N71.6bn.

He noted the inflows being expected were a backlog of accumulated Stamp Duties of N48bn, refund from debt swap with the Federal Government to the tune of N22.95bn, amounting to N70.95bn.

He emphasised that “by the time you discount or factor in the negotiated debt swap and the expected inflows, the State would attain a debt reduction, bringing down the State’s debt profile to N45.2bn

“In addition, Benue State has outstanding approvals awaiting disbursement from the Federal Government including: balance of bailout N41bn, CBN facilities (referred to as Central Bank of Nigeria DCRR) of N20bn.”

SAMUEL Ortom further explained that his administration had introduced pension reforms stating that over N8bn has been raised under the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS.