NEWS
Enugu ₦521.6bn 2024 Budget Scales Second Reading in House of Assembly
From Sylvia Udegbunam, Enugu
Speaking on Tuesday during the plenary in Enugu, the leader of the House, Iloabuchi Aniagu (PDP, Nkanu West), said the appropriation bill is one of the most important legislation received by the current assembly.
Aniagu noted that the running of the government would be jeopardised, if the budget is not considered, stressing that the Executive cannot spend any money without the approval of the lawmakers.
He described the budget, tagged Budget of Disruptive Economic Growth, as lofty, saying it was the first time the state would have ₦521.
6bn as its budget estimate.According to him, it was an indication that the state government under Governor Peter Mbah meant business in transforming the economic and social development of the state.
While pointing out that capital expenditure is far above recurrent expenditure, he expressed excitement that every ward in the state is captured, as it regards the construction of 260 Smart schools and Type II Primary Health Centre (PHC).
Another lawmaker, Okey Mba (PDP, Nkanu East), while agreeing with the submissions of Aniagu, noted the appropriation bill clearly manifests Gov. Mbah’s vision to raise the GDP of the state from $4.4bn to $30bn.
However, Harrison Ogara (LP, Igbo-Eze South), expressed doubt that the 2024 budget, which he termed ambitious, may not be realised considering the amount of revenue contained in it.
Ogara revealed that in 2023, the state generated only a revenue little above ₦100bn, questioned where the state would generate ₦252bn and asked his colleagues to critically look at the budget.
Mr. Lebechi Eze (LP, Isi-Uzo) complained that ₦3bn earmarked for the House of Assembly in 2024 is not adequate and poor, when compared with the other arms of the government.
Also contributing, Ms Obiajulu Ugwu (LP, Enugu South Rural), urged the state government to focus its attention on making existing PHC functional instead of building new ones.
Ugwu regretted that no provision allocation was made for provision of shelter to women, who are victims of Gender-based violence (GBV), to enable the state to shelter them properly.
On his part, the Speaker of the House, Chief Uche Ugwu, asked various committees to conduct budget defence to enable the House to pass the budget before the end of the year.
The house thereafter adjourned its plenary to Dec. 21, 2024, for further legislative activities.
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit Zone C, says it intercepted contrabands with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N510.92 million between July 15th and September 15th, 2024.The zone covers the six states in the South-South geopolitical zone and the five states in the Southeast geopolitical zone.
This is contained in a statement signed by Jerry Attah, Public Relations Officer, NCS, Zone C, and made available to journalists on Wednesday. According to the statement, Comptroller Michael Ugbagu, NCS, Zone C, gave the statistics while showcasing the seized contraband to relevant regulatory agencies at the Government Warehouse in Edo.Ugbagu said that the zone also recovered the sum of N25.57 million from demand notices raised based on some infractions noticed, making a cumulative sum of N536.49 million recorded within the months under review.“The DPV was derived from our seized goods, which include 49,699 sachets of various brands of tramadol and 3,350 bottles of various cough syrups with codeine without an NAFDAC number.“1,015 sacks of dry donkey meat and skin, 75 jumbo bales of second-hand clothing, 463 cartons of foreign spaghetti, 269 pieces of used pneumatic tires, and 56 cartons of smuggled foreign tomato paste.“More worrisome is the interception of 49,699 sachets of various brands of tramadol and 3,350 bottles of various cough syrups with codeine without NAFDAC registration numbers.”He noted that the cough syrup with codeine and tramadol without NAFDAC registration numbers, if not intercepted, could have had adverse effects on youths.He added that the items were mostly intercepted along the Ewu-Okada/Benin expressways based on credible intelligence. (NAN)
The Forum of Stakeholders of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has decried the deplorable condition of some federal roads in Nigeria. Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, the North-Central Chairman of the forum, said this in an interaction with newsmen on Wednesday in Jos. Zazzaga described some of the federal roads as ”death traps”, particularly those within the north-central region.
He said that some of the deplorable roads in the region include Jos-Akwanga, Makurdi-Oturkpo-Otukpa, Makurdi-Ankpa, and Jos-Saminaka. Other roads that needed urgent attention, he said, included Suleja-Minna, Ejule-Otukpa, Ganawuri-Manchok, Lokoja-Abuja, Lapai-Agaie-Bida, Birnin-Gwari-Bokani-Mokwa, Minna-Zungeru-Tegina-Kontagora. ”Currently, the north-central region has the most deplorable roads and highways in the country. ”These deplorable roads have brought severe hardship on the people and lost lives and property through preventable road traffic crashes. ”We call on President Bola Tinubu to intervene and ensure the rehabilitation of these roads because good roads are vital enablers of development,” he said. The chairman also called on governors of states within the region to reconstruct the dilapidated roads and seek refunds from the federal government. ”Though these are largely federal roads, they are located within states, and the beneficiaries are the people of these states. ”So we call on state governments to reconstruct these roads and seek refunds from the federal government,” he added. (NAN
The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan, strengthened 160 pips to 7.087 against the dollar on Wednesday.This is according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.In China’s spot foreigners exchange market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by two per cent from the central parity rate each trading day.
The central parity rate of the yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day. (Xinhua/NAN)
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