Ike Nnachi, Abakaliki
The State House of Assembly has passed the total sum of N444, 978,000,000 billion into law as budget for the year 2025.
The State Governor, Francis Nwifuru, had presented a proposed budget of N398.69bn to the House three weeks ago.
But after the House committee on appropriation’s deliberations and sittings during which various departments and ministries defended their budget estimates, the budget was increased.
The plenary which endorsed the appropriation bill took place at the State Legislative Complex Nkaliki.
The 2025 appropriation bill christened “Budget of Economic and Social Development,” was passed into law by the State House of Assembly after due review by the House committee on appropriation and finance.
The bill was committed to the Committee of the whole where it was considered page by page and errors of syntax and morphology were corrected.
In his remark, the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Moses Odunwa, commended the Committee for their thorough work, commitment to their assignment and timely completion of the work on the budget.
He said the action of the committee represents the spirit of members of the seventh State Assembly which is committed to the welfare of Ebonyi people and administration of Governor Francis Nwifuru.
He pledged unalloyed support of members of the Assembly to the present administration and expressed optimism that the 2025 budget of economic and social development would bring unequalled development to the residents of the State.
Earlier, the chairman of the committee, Kingsley Ikoro said, all the heads of each Ministry, Department, Agency and Parasratals of Government were invited for a proper scrutiny of their budgets for a possible correction where necessary.
According to the him, the committee adopted global best practices which supported the implementation of Government finance statistics and reporting standards.
Ikoro, who is also the House Leader, maintained that the 2025 budget was geared towards developmental strides of the State through industrialisation, improvement of internally generated revenue and People’s Charter of Needs in the State.
The three main sections of the budget include; Personnel, Overhead and Capital expenditure.
