2024: Soludo presents N410 billion budget to Anambra Assembly

Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State has presented a N410 billion 2024 budget to the House of Assembly for approval.

Mr Soludo made the presentation on Tuesday at the Assembly Chambers in Awka.

The budget recorded a 57.8 per cent increase from the N258.97 billion 2023 budget presented by the governor in November last year.

Mr Soludo, during the presentation, said that the 2024 budget has a recurrent expenditure of N96.2 billion, accounting for 23.46 per cent, while capital expenditure stood at N313.9 billion which accounts for 76.54 per cent.

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The governor said the budget has a deficit of N120.8 billion which is expected to be financed from financial institutions.

The governor said some key sectors of the state’s economy recorded increased budgeting due to the government’s decision to fund the new Anambra master plan.

He said part of the master plan was to address the environmental challenges in the state.

“Under the 2024 budget, we will intentionally accelerate our agenda on clean, green, planned and sustainable Anambra,” he said.

Mr Soludo said the government’s infrastructural development plan will “deliberately target the provision of transportation system” which will serve generations, adding that such plan will also target dualisation of key highways and modernising the state’s mass transport systems.

“The 2024 budget signals a significant investment in urban and semi-urban water schemes, and we expect Ndi Anambra to see taps running again in 2024,” he said.

The governor said his administration had not borrowed money from its inception despite proposing to do so, twice.

“Be rest assured that we won’t borrow unless it satisfies two stringent criteria we have set: it must be a concessionary loan; and it must be deployed to projects that we can show how they would pay back the loan in the future.

“Even with an estimated 66 per cent budget performance for 2023, we insist on not borrowing unless it satisfies our set criteria,” he stated.

IGR low in Anambra

Mr Soludo decried the decreasing Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state and called on residents of the state to work to improve the state’s IGR.

“In the 2023 budget, we expected a monthly revenue of N4 billion. So far, we are averaging N2 billion, and we are still projecting N4.2 billion per month in 2024,” he lamented.

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The budget passed first reading after which the House adjourned the plenary until Wednesday.