The Governor of Enugu state, Mr. Peter Mbah, has presented the budget for the 2024 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly.
The budget, dubbed Budget of Disruptive Economic Growth is estimated at ₦521,561,386,000 and is structured to bring about growth and a paradigm shift in the way things are done in Enugu State.
A breakdown of the budget proposal shows that the capital expenditure will gulp ₦414,334,120,000, while the recurrent expenditure is estimated at ₦107,227,266,000.
The internally generated revenue was estimated at 252,789,000,000 of the bidget.
On sectorial breakdown, the governor kept to his promise of giving education over 30% of the budget, as ₦134,587,982,647.78, representing 33 percent of the budget was set aside for the sector.
Law and Justice got ₦1,225,643,498.00; regional and urban planning: ₦1,144,550,000.00; social services: ₦182,149,510,648.00; Health: ₦21,777,421,000.00.
Infrastructure (Road construction/maintenance and rehabilitation of public buildings) is to take ₦82,535,147,361.03; water sector ₦28,970,250,000.00; Agriculture was budgeted ₦25,184,154,671.81.
Mbah said the budget will go a long way in setting the pace for the achievement of the goal of his administration.
The governor while appreciating the lawmakers for the expedite action given to the supplementary budget, appealed to them to give the current budget same treatment.
He maintained that his administration’s vision remains to make Enugu to be among the top three states in the country in terms of GDP and to achieve zero poverty among its citizens.
“Private sector investment is critical to the growth we seek to achieve, hence the necessary infrastructures such as roads, electricity that’s needed to drive this growth will be provided,” he said.
The Governor stated that reliance on FAAC has not served the state well, hence the budget seeks new revenue sources such as through the natural resources.
The speaker of the House, Hon. Uche Uwgu commended the governor for fulfilling this constitutional obligation and assured him that the Assembly to achieve the set objectives, while noting that the estimation is a record breaking one.
“The budget size is unusually big and in tandem with your business mantra and we have confidence in your capacity to deliver and we promise to give the budget a speedy consideration.”
