Ben Ezechime, Enugu
Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State has presented the budget of N521, 561, 387 billion for 2024 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly.
The governor said the budget christened ‘Budget of Disruptive Economic Growth” was structured to propel growth and bring about a paradigm shift in the way things were done in Enugu State.
A breakdown of the budget proposal shows that, Capital expenditure will take N414, 334,120,000 while the recurrent expenditure is estimated at ₦107,227,266,000.
The internally generated revenue will provide 252,789,000,000.00 of the estimated amount.
On sectorial breakdown, the Governor kept to his promise of given education over 30 per cent of the budget with ₦134,587,982,647.78) representing 33 per cent of the budget.
Others include Law and Justice: ₦1,225,643,498.00; regional: ₦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) will take ₦82,535,147,361.03; water sector ₦28,970,250,000.00; Agriculture will take ₦25,184,154,671.81
Mbah said the budget would go a long way in setting the pace for the achievement of set goals
The governor while appreciating the Lawmakers for the expedite action given to the supplementary budget, appealed to them to give the current budget same attention
He maintained that his administration’s vision remains to make Enugu be among the top three in terms of GDP and achieve zero poverty.
“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 also stated that his administration had taken the view that “reliance on FAAC hasn’t served us well till date and will not take us to the promised land, hence this budget seeks new revenue sources such as our natural resources.”