Governor Bassey Otu of Cross River State on Tuesday presented a budget proposal of N498 billion for the 2025 financial year in the Cross River House of Assembly.
Presenting the motion before MPs in Calabar, Mr Otu said the sum of N328 billion, which is about 68 per cent of the total budget size, was allocated for capital expenditure.
He said the recurrent expenditure is N170 billion, which is about 34 per cent of the total budget.
According to him, the sectoral allocations are as follows: Infrastructure, N100 billion; Education, N81 billion; Health, N25 billion; Judiciary, N20 billion; House of Assembly, N18 billion; and aviation N16 billion.
Others are, Special Duties/Intergovernmental Affairs, N15 billion; power, N14 billion; Agriculture, N11 billion; Tourism, 5 billion; Science, Technology/Innovation N4.7 billion; Women Affairs, N3.7 billion; information, N3 billion, while others will swallow N181.6 billion.
Mr Otu said the major revenue sources would be from federal allocations, grants from international organizations and internally generated revenue (IGR).
He said the budget was benchmarked on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), targets nine, four, three, two and 16 to ensure continuity of projects not completed in the current budget circle.
Reviewing the 2024 budget, Mr Otu said the adverse economic environment in the country, led by devaluation of the Naira three consecutive times within a financial year, coupled with exchange rate fluctuations, had negatively impacted project implementation in the state .
“As a result, there is a need to increase the initial budget provision for specific projects due to underlying inflation.
“To deal with this stormy economic situation, we had to scale down many of the projects scheduled for implementation while giving priority to very important sectors that had a direct impact on citizens,” he said.
The governor said that apart from the huge debt burden on the state, the government had spent about N73 billion to repay the debt by 2024.
Previously, the president was Albert Ayembem. cross the river The House of Assembly lauded the Governor for his achievements in the state including fixing roads and other infrastructure.
However, he appealed for better power supply in the Assembly so that they can carry out their functions effectively.
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(TagstoTranslate)Budget(T)Elbert Ayembem(T)Governor Bassey Otu(T)Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)(T)Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)(T)Speaker of the Cross River House of Assembly
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