2 hours ago
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ABAKALIKI – Ebonyi state governor, Francis Nwifuru, has presented the sum of N396 billion to the House of Assembly as the budget for the 2025 fiscal year.
The appropriation bill is tagged “Budget of Economic and Social Development”.
A breakdown shows that N112 billion is proposed for the recurrent expenditure, while N284 is allocated to capital expenditure.
Presenting the budget, Nwifuru, a former Speaker of the Assembly, noted that the health sector will get a 111% increase when compared with the 2024 budget.
The Education sector got the highest chunk of the budget followed by Health Sector.
According to him, the 2025 health budget is N39,012,563,000.00 which is way higher than the NN18,487,118,000.00 budgeted for the 2024 fiscal year.
Education sector got N70,143,386,000.00 in the 2025 budget, which is a 17 percent increase from the N59,566,375,522.89 the sector got in the 2024 budget.
He said that 33.64 percent of the budget is expected to come from the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocations to the state including Value Added Tax(VAT), Statutory Allocation and others totalling about N133,398,700,000.00.
The internally generated revenue (IGR) will account for N28,499,409,620.00 which is 7.19 percent of the budget.
Grants and other donor agencies is expected to raise 11 percent of the budget estimated at N45,690,900,000.00 while N 8bn was earmarked as opening balance.
Capital Development Fund is expected to supply N45.64 percent which is N181,000,000,000.00 of the budget funds.
The governor noted that while the task of governance is not an easy one, the task of meeting people’s needs is even more challenging due to multiplicity of human wants.
He solicited for the patience of the people to enable him deliver on his people’s charter of needs agenda.
“We are determined to steadily
pursue our commitment as outlined in the People’s Charter of
Needs, the guiding compass of our administration to logical
conclusion.
“We acknowledge that we are not yet where we ought to be, but we have made significant progress. We will not relent until we reach the shore.
“My administration therefore
solicits understanding and cooperation of all Ebonyi people”, he said.
The governor urged the Lawmakers to give the bill speedy and favourable consideration for the achievement of its lofty plans for the State and the people.
