Governor Alex Otti of Abia State, on Tuesday, gave the state House of Assembly a budget estimate of N567.2 billion for the 2024 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly.
The money is designated as the “Budget of New Beginning.”
Otti said:
“The 2024 budget proposal targets the expansion of our public infrastructure in line with our new development targets, scaling up access and quality service delivery in the social sector, with a special focus on education and health where we are proposing to commit more than 20 percent and 15 percent of the aggregate budget spending, respectively.
Governor Alex Otti
“The key distinction in the 2024 budget estimate, however, is in the direction of spending. While the 2023 projection allocated 53 percent of the entire budget for capital expenditure, our target in the 2024 fiscal year is to spend 84 percent of the total expenditure on capital projects and commit 16 percent to recurrent expenditure, as against 47 percent in the 2023 estimates.”
Alex Otti
The governor announced his plan to finance the deficit of N401,162,378,914 in part by new borrowings estimated at N385,271,027,214.
He said that about 50% of this borrowing will be sourced externally, and the remaining portion will be sourced locally.
Regarding the proposed figure, the government’s estimated total revenue is about N166,077,717,058, including earnings from IGR channels, the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, grants from multilateral organizations, and income from other revenue sources.
He stated that all the borrowing in the fiscal year 2024 would be limited to capital development projects that directly affect the state’s economy, particularly those involving roads, schools, and healthcare facilities.
These projects’ medium- to long-term effects on the overall economy would produce enough returns to allow the state to easily meet its debt obligations to its creditors and eventually repay the loans.
The governor also claimed he did a good job implementing the N160.5 billion budget for 2023 and projected that the state will do far better than the 60% budget implementation achieved in 2022.
“Today‘s budget presentation is therefore significant in many ways. First, it is the first full-year budget by our government, deliberately structured to reflect the priorities of the administration on very important frontiers. “Our goal is to consolidate on the modest gains made in the 2023 budget cycle, especially in the last six months,”
Governor Alex Otti
Responding, the Speaker, Emmanuel Emeruwa, described the said budget as “robust and capital intensive” and the first time in the history of the state that such amount is budgeted for, and “a robust move that will enhance the economy and every human life.”
He assured the governor that the House of Assembly would consider the bill favorably and with dispatch so that work would not be delayed and for people to see the change in the state.
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Governor Alex Otti: Pay rise for Abia civil servants
Governor Alex Otti announced a pay rise for civil servants in Abia State to make up for the economic hardship in the country.
“As I promised at a media briefing earlier in the month, we shall be implementing a pay rise for our civil servants to reflect the present economic realities in the country.
“This shall be implemented in the New Year and provision for that has been made in the 2024 budget,” he said.
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