….Proposed bills maintain higher fiscal submissions
As State Executives move to restore the January to December budget cycle, more Governors have presented their appropriation bills to their respective State Houses of Assembly for the 2024 fiscal year.
Governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah, on Tuesday presented a N521.5 billion (N521,561,386,000) budget for the 2024 fiscal year before the Enugu State House of Assembly.
The budget proposal, which he entitled “Budget of Disruptive Economic Growth” is the highest in the state’s history, comprising N414.3 billion capital expenditure and N107.2 billion recurrent expenditure.
Presenting the budget on Tuesday, Governor Mbah said, “The 2024-2026 Multi-Year Budget is named Budget of Disruptive Economic Growth. This is on account of the fact that it is structured to drive growth in a markedly different pattern than we have attempted to do hitherto.
“We are proposing a total budget of size of N521,561,386,000.00 for the 2024 fiscal year as against the approved revised provision of N224,697,899,063.00 for 2023. This represents a 132% increase from the 2023 revised budget.
“In the area of our revenues, we estimated that total recurrent revenues during 2024 will amount to N383,789,000,000.00 as against the approved revised provision for 2023 of N143,571,592,917.”
Giving a breakdown of government’s expected sources of revenue, the governor said, whereas the State had an opening balance of N11 billion, it expects to rake in N252.7 billion from internally generated revenue (IGR), N60 billion from statutory revenue, N16 billion from excess crude oil revenues and others, while N44 billion would come from Value Added Tax (VAT).
On the Recurrent Expenditure and Capital Expenditure, Mbah explained, “For 2024 Fiscal Year, Recurrent Expenditure which is proposed at ¦ 107,227,266,000.00 is made up of N47,583,677,000 Personnel Costs, N41,804,698.000 Overhead Costs, and N17,838.891,000 Consolidated Revenue Charges.
“With the total recurrent Expenditure at N107,227,266,000.00, this translates to a Net Recurrent Revenue of N276,561,734,000.00, which is thus transferred to the Capital Development Fund.
“The total Capital Expenditure for the year 2024 is projected at N414,334,120,000.00 as against N135,715,099,693.00 for 2023 Revised Budget. The current capital expenditure estimate will be funded from the sum of N276,561,734,000.00 to be transferred from the Consolidated Revenue Fund, and the capital receipts of N137,772,386,000.00 to be realised as follows: External and Internal Aids and Grants, N27.922,386,000; Public Private Partnership, N6,100,000,000; Domestic Loans/Borrowings, N71,000,000,000; and International Loans/Borrowing Receipts, N32,750.000.000.”
On a sectoral basis, the economic sector got the highest in the Capital Expenditure Distribution, which is N207.8 billion, followed by the social sector, which got N182.9 billion.
However, education got 73.6 percent of the social sector allocation, and 33 percent of the total budget, representing the highest in both instances.
“As I mentioned earlier, Education is a key plank in our strategy to eradicate poverty in our State. Consequently, N134,587,982,647.78 representing 73.6 percent of the social sector has been earmarked to help reinvent education in our state by developing the new smart schools, which I mentioned earlier, as well as repositioning our senior secondary and tertiary institutions by training and retraining teachers and updating our curricula across all levels of education to infuse technology and technology appreciation and skills.
“This capital expenditure on education combined with the planned recurrent expenditure in the sector will bring our total spending on education to 33 percent of the total budget,” the Governor stated.
Other top allocations include infrastructural development and maintenance, particularly roads and public buildings, with N82.5 billion to, according to the governor, “smoothen connectivity, bolster trade, and enhance overall accessibility and attract investments that create jobs,” agriculture, which got N25.1 billion in pursuit for the self-sufficiency and economic diversification agenda; water, which got N28.9 billion to ensure safe and quality water supply in the state and boost reticulation across the Enugu metropolis; and health, which got N21.7 billion, as the administration ramps up construction of 260 Type-2 Primary Healthcare Centres across the 260 electoral wards. Other priority areas include job creation, and security.
Mbah, while appreciating Members of the House of Assembly for their support across party lines, urged all stakeholders to join hands “in this journey towards a better future for all residents.
Responding, the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Uchenna Ugwu, while commending the governor for the remarkable impacts he had made in six months, including the restoration of water to Enugu city, pledged a thorough and expedited work on the 2024 budget estimates.
…Gov Makinde presents N434.2bn budget for 2024 fiscal year
In Oyo, Governor Seyi Makinde on Tuesday, presented a total budget of N434,221,765,938,79 (four hundred and thirty-four billion, two hundred and twenty-one million, seven hundred and sixty-five thousand, nine hundred and thirty-eight naira, and seventy-nine kobo) to the State House of Assembly for the 2024 fiscal year.
The Governor, during the budget presentation tagged: “Budget of Economic Recovery,” said capital expenditure took N222.3 billion of 2.4% of the budget, while total recurrent expenditure carried N211.8 billion.
Education took the largest share of the budget allocation with N90.6 billion, or 20 percent of the total budget, while N74.3 billion was budgeted for infrastructure, taking 17.11 percent of the 2024 appropriation.
Also in the breakdown, the health sector took N40.9 billion, or about 9.44 percent, with the agricultural sector getting N15 billion, or 3.65 percent of the total budget.
Governor Makinde, who said an amount of N72 billion has been estimated as the state’s Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, promised the commitment of his administration to surpass the 70 percent 2023 budget performance.
He disclosed that the budget is an opportunity for the administration to show responsiveness to current economic reality following the removal of fuel subsidy.
He said the government will continue to use technology to block loopholes, noting that, as done in previous years, the government has no plan to increase taxes but to expand the tax net for the state.
Makinde, however, assured that the budget will cover projects, policies, and actions that, when implemented, will cushion the effect of the hardship the people are facing as a result of fuel subsidy removal.
In his remark, the Speaker of the Assembly, Mr. Adebo Ogundoyin, said there was no doubt that the year 2024 will be a year of many opportunities and prosperities for the dear state, with the visionary leadership style of the governor and the unalloyed cooperation and support of the legislature under his watch.
“Let me assure the Governor and people of Oyo State that, as a House, we are always ready to perform our constitutional duty of lawmaking in particular and to also ensure that the Executive Arm of Government encounters no legal impediment in the performance of its functions for the overall welfare and wellbeing of the state and its residents.
“Governor Seyi Makinde has refused to tow the previous turbulent order of brigandage and waste of public resources with impunity, ineptitude, and fraudulent practices in public service, but he has rather set out a new order of transformation towards sustainable development in the state,” he said.
Ogundoyin then assured the Governor of accelerated consideration of the budget, while appealing to the commissioners whose ministries are involved in the execution of these projects to redouble their efforts to ensure early completion of the projects.