Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has presented a budget proposal of N109,199 billion for the 2019 fiscal year to the House of Assembly for consideration and passage.
Presenting the budget proposal which was tagged: ‘‘Budget of peace, equity
and prosperity” chambers of the Assembly, Ugwuanyi said that the appropriation bill was 5.44% higher than the 2018 budget of N103, 563 billion.
He added that the increase was in keeping with his administration’s promise in 2017 to expand its expenditure on projects and programmes of the state as the economy of the nation
improves and “to ensure that every citizen and residents of Enugu State will reap the full benefits of the dividends of democracy”.
He explained that “out of the total budget
proposal of N109.199 billion, the sum of N65.7 billion, representing 60.17%, is for recurrent expenditure, noting that “this is higher than the 2018 figure of N60.7 billion by 8.22%. Capital expenditure was N43.493 billion representing 39.3% of the budget size, which is also higher by 1.5% than the 2018 figure of 42.846 billion.
According to him, because of the premium the state government placed on infrastructural development of the state, works and infrastructure would gulp the highest amount of N16.5 billion The health sector was allocated the sum of N2.37 billion, stating that the sector received a boost in its financing to enable his administration fully equip the already completed Enugu State Medical Diagnostic Centre to commence operation in 2019..
According to him, agriculture was al’ocated a sum of N633.5m to consolidate the efforts of his administration towards commercialization of the sector to achieve food security in the state,
while N5.522b went to the education sector to sustain the tempo of
government in the ongoing compulsory free education from primary to
junior secondary schools; renovation, construction and equipping of
schools at all levels, among others.
The governor said that the sum of N742m was budgeted for the expansion of Enugu and Nsukka urban water scheme, boosting of
small town water supply project , the state rural supply project and
the State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (ENRUWASA) with the
aim of “making potable water available to our people irrespective of whether they live in a rural or urban area”.
He noted that the state government intends to sustain and improve on the services being provided through
free maternal and child healthcare programme, complete all ongoing road
projects and construct new ones across the 17 local government areas of the state and provide other critical infrastructure that will stimulate economic growth and job creation in Enugu State.
In his words: “We want to ensure that our children, pregnant and nursing mothers do
not die from preventable ailments, thus we have set aside the sum total of N2.37 billion to all the ministries, departments and agencies
under the health sector in the 2019.
