From Sylvia Udegbunam Enugu

Enugu State Governor, Dr. Peter Mbah has proposed a record N971bn budget bill for the 2025 fiscal year to the Enugu State House of Assembly.

Presenting the estimates entitled “Budget of Exponential Growth and Inclusive Prosperity” at the floor of the House on Tuesday, Mbah said the proposed estimates comprised N837.

This topples the record-holding 2024 budget of N521.5bn, consisting of N414.3bn Capital Expenditure, representing 79 per cent of the total budget and N107.

However, like the 2024 budget, the 2025 budget proposal emphasizes huge investment in education as well as basic but critical infrastructure and amenities like roads and bridges, water supply, transport services, energy, modernization and digitization of public services and associated processes, with the Education sector getting a lion-share of N320.6bn, representing over 33 per cent of the total budget for two consecutive years.

Mbah said that this was in line with his administration’s target of poverty eradication and an inclusive development model, which ensures that no one or segment of the society is left behind.

The governor equally announced a growth in the state’s Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, from N37.4bn at the end of 2023 to N144.7bn in September 2024, representing a radical 286.2 per cent increase in line with the administration’s deliberate effort to wean the state off reliance on FAAC allocations.

Addressing the House, Mbah said, “In crafting this budget, we have to continue to lay the right foundation in Enugu to enhance the economy and attract even more private investment.

“In spite of the dreary economic environment across the country, for us here in Enugu, we have elected to remain bullish in our aspirations, and to double down on our commitment to elevate our state to top three status in terms of GDP nationally, and eradicate poverty from our midst.

“Indeed, we see this as a vindication of our previously espoused view that sustainable national growth can really only be driven from the sub-national units to the federal levels, and not the other way round as we have attempted to do to date.

“It is on account of this that we are proposing to the House of Assembly today, a budget with a total envelope of N971,084,000,000.00 as against the budget for 2024 fiscal year which totaled N521,561,386,000.00.

“This represents an 86.4 per cent increase from the 2024 revised budget.

“The budget is broken down as follows: N133,140,000,000.00 as Recurrent Expenditure and N837,944,000,000.00 as Capital Expenditure,” he said.

On sources of revenue, he said, “In the area of our revenues, we estimated that total Recurrent revenues during 2025 will amount to N692,179,000,000 as against the approved revised provision for 2024 of N383,789,000,000.00.

“The Recurrent revenues for 2025 are broken down as follows: opening balance – N32,000,000,000; Internally Generated Revenue, IGR – N509,947,000,000; statutory revenue – N48,749,000,000; exchange rate differential – N26,559,000,000; and Value Added Tax, VAT – N74,924,000,000.

Meanwhile, in terms of broad sectors, the Economic Sector got a lion share of N462bn, representing 55.1 per cent of the Capital Expenditure, followed by the Social Sector with N345.7bn, representing 41.2 per cent.

In terms of specific sectors, Education got 33.2 per cent, the largest chunk, in sync with Mbah’s effort to eradicate poverty and graduate the state to a knowledge-based economy.

The governor explained that the 2025 budget would also focus greatly on health, road infrastructure, transport, agriculture, and water sectors, among others.

In the area of Transport, we will be spending a total of N41,132,463,000.00 to expand Enugu Air with the acquisition of 4 additional aircraft. In addition, we will be consummating the concessioning of the Akanu Ibiam international airport as well as the construction of an international cargo terminal. We will also be floating a new taxi scheme in collaboration with the private sector to modernize urban and inter-urban transportation for Ndi Enugu.

Giving a breakdown of the state’s IGR and overall performance of the 2024 budget, the governor noted a remarkable increase in the state’s IGR since the inception of this administration, explaining that while the state’s IGR stood at N26.8bn in 2022, the administration it by 39 per cent to N37.4bn at the end of 2023.

However, as at September 2024, the state’s IGR had drastically increased to N144.7bn, representing a 286.2 per cent increase, expressing confidence that it would surpass 200billion by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the Speaker of the State Assembly, Hon. Uchenna Ugwu, has promised early passage of the budget by the House to sustain the governor’s development strides.