Governor Bassey Otu of Cross River presented a budget proposal of N498 billion for 2025, christened “Budget of Sustainable Growth,” to the State House of Assembly on Tuesday.

Presenting the proposal to the lawmakers in Calabar, Mr Otu noted that N328 billion, representing about 68 per cent of the total budget, was allocated to capital expenditure.

He said the recurrent expenditure is N170 billion, representing about 34 per cent of the total budget.

According to him, the sectoral allocations are as follows: infrastructure, N100 billion; education, N81 billion; health, N25 billion; judiciary, N20 billion; House of Assembly, N18 billion; and aviation, N16 billion.

Others are special duties/intergovernmental affairs, N15 billion; power, N14 billion; agriculture, N11 billion; tourism, 5 billion; science, technology, and innovation, N4.7 billion; women affairs, N3.7 billion; and information, N3 billion, while others will gulp N181.6 billion.

Mr Otu said the major revenue sources would be from federal allocations, grants from international organisations, and internally generated revenue (IGR).

He noted that the budget was benchmarked on the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), goals nine, four, three, two and 16 to ensure the continuity of projects not completed in the current budget circle.

Reviewing the 2024 budget, Mr Otu said the unfavourable economic climate in the country occasioned by the devaluation of the naira three consecutive times within one fiscal year coupled with the floating of the exchange rate negatively impacted project implementation in the state.

“Consequently, the initial budget provision for specific projects needed to be increased owing to the built-in inflation.

“To manoeuvre this stormy economic situation, we had to scale down on a number of projects earmarked for implementation while prioritising very critical sectors that had a direct impact on the citizenry,” he maintained.

He added that besides the huge debt burden of the state, the government had spent about 73 billion on debt servicing in 2024.

Earlier, Elvert Ayambem, speaker of the Cross River House of Assembly, commended the governor for his achievements, which included fixing roads and other infrastructure.

He, however, appealed for an improved power supply in the assembly to enable them to carry out their functions effectively.

(NAN)