Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State has presented a budget of ₦521.6billion for 2024 to the State House of Assembly for approval.
Presenting the budget tagged “Budget of Disruptive Economic Growth ” on Tuesday at the Assembly Legislative Complex in Enugu, Mbah said it was 132 per cent higher than that of the revised 2023 budget of over N210billion.
He said that the budget was made up of ₦107.2billion recurrent expenditure and ₦414.3billion capital expenditure.
He gave the breakdown of the recurrent expenditure to include an opening balance of ₦11billion, Internal Generated Revenue (IGR) ₦252billion, statutory revenue ₦60billion, excess crude and others ₦16billion and Value Added Tax (VAT) ₦44billion.
The governor said that 33 per cent of the budget would go into the education sector, adding that the government had started the construction of 260 ultra-modern smart schools in all the political wards of the state.
“These Schools are unique not only in the fact that they would house the entire basic school classes from Crèche to JS3 but also in terms of the significant changes.
“We are adding to the curriculum of the Children, where we will be infusing new subject areas like Technology, robotics, Artificial Intelligence.
“In addition, the approach to teaching in these schools will be experiential, with extensive use of practical examples, dramatization, and gamification.
“This naturally requires extensive re-training of our teachers to enable them to grasp these new learning approaches as well as the various technology-based teaching and learning tools which we shall deploy tablets, interactive whiteboards, Learning management systems,’’ he said.
On the health sector, Mbah said that ₦22.8billion had been budgeted to enhance healthcare facilities, expand access to quality healthcare services, and bolster response to health emergencies.
He said that the goal was to ensure that every citizen had access to reliable and efficient healthcare services.
“We pledge to upgrade healthcare facilities, ensure the availability of essential medicines, and implement initiatives to enhance public health awareness.
“In particular, we have commenced the construction of 260 Type-2 Primary Health Centres across the 260 wards in the State to cater for the health needs of rural communities”, he added.
Receiving the budget, the Speaker of the House, Chief Uche Ugwu, assured that the lawmakers would give it speedy passage to enable the government to execute its developmental agenda.
