The Governor of Cross River State in southern Nigeria, Senator Bassey Otu has presented a budget proposal of ₦498 Billion (Four hundred and ninety-eight billion naira) for 2025 fiscal year to the state legislature.
Governor Otu, who was accompanied by his deputy, Dr. Peter Odey and the state Chief Judge, Justice Akon Ikpeme, stated that the presentation of the bill was sequel to a state-wide consultant, which he described as reflective of the needs of the people.
Otu said, “this Appropriation Bill is a product of wide consultations and consensus. Between 27th August and 12th September 2024, the Budget Department had engaged in consultation of stakeholders across the three senatorial districts of our State, with consultative centres in Ogoja, Ikom and Calabar for the northern, central and southern districts, respectively.
“The aim was to aggregate the people’s opinions and desires with a view to reflecting them in the proposed 2025 budget. In the light of this robust engagement with our citizens, I am confident that the document before this hallowed chamber is a reflection of the yearning of the good people of Cross River State, moderated by the people-centric and inclusive policies of my administration,”
Sectoral breakdown
Christened “Budget of Sustainable Growth”, the governor stated that bill was reflective of his administration’s determination to sustain development and growth in line with the People’s First agenda.
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Giving a breakdown of the budget, Governor Otu stated, “for the 2025 fiscal year, we have proposed a total budget size of ₦498B (Four Hundred and Ninety-Eight Billion Naira) only.
“The sum of ₦328B representing about 66 percent of the total budget size is allocated to Capital Expenditure; while the Recurrent Expenditure has ₦170B representing about 34 percent of the total Budget size,” he said.
Breaking down further, the governor said, “looking at the sectoral allocation, Infrastructure is expected to gulp ₦100B; Education has been allocated ₦81B; Health has been allocated ₦25B; Judiciary ₦20B; House of Assembly estimated to gulp ₦18B, while Aviation-has been allocated ₦16B and Special Duties/Intergovernmental Affairs is pegged at ₦15B.”
Still, Governor Otu stated “Power – ₦14B; Agriculture ₦11B; Tourism – ₦5B; Science, Technology and Innovation – ₦4.7B; Women Affairs has been allocated ₦3.7B and Information – ₦3B , while others will take all ₦181.6B.”
Budget benchmark
According to him, the 2025 budget would be funded from federal allocation, grants from International organisations and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), while the benchmark for the implementation of the budget hinged on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
“The decision to continue with the SDG benchmark is to guarantee continuity of projects and programmes, which may not be completed in this current budget circle. This necessitated the need to roll over to 2025 fiscal year. We have deliberately placed emphasis on SDGs 2, 3, 4, 9 and 16.”
Earlier, the Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly, Mr. Elbert Ayambem commended the governor for taking the constitutional duty of presenting appropriation bills to the legislature for consideration and approval serious.
He reiterated the readiness of legislators to commence the process without delay urging heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies to immediately appear before the assembly for the defence of their budgets.
It would be recalled that the 2024 Budget tagged “The People’s First Budget” was initially begged at ₦250bn (Two hundred and fifty billion naira only), which later increased to ₦437,876,029,437.51 (Four hundred and Thirty-seven Billion, Eight Hundred and Seventy-six Million, Twenty-nine Thousand, Four Hundred and Thirty-seven Naira, Fifty-one kobo) due to the current economic crunch.
Olusola Akintonde
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