The Anambra State House of Assembly on Thursday passed the 2025 budget of N607 billion presented to it by Governor Chukwuma Soludo on November 19 into law.

The budget was passed following a motion by Ikenna Ofodeme, the majority leader of the House representing Ekwusigo State Constituency.

The Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Somto Udeze, said the passage of the budget was not just a milestone but a demonstration of the synergy between the legislative and executive arms of government.

Mr Udeze said they were impressed that the outgoing budget had been implemented to the tune of 80 per cent, expressing hope that it would be sustained in 2025.

He urged citizens of the state to continue to support the Governor Chukwuma Soludo administration and appealed to them to pay their taxes.

In a post-budget-passing media briefing, Chairman House Committee on Information, Ejike Okechukwu, said the budget was passed as presented by the governor.

However, Mr Okechukwu said that though the overall budget size was not altered, there were realignments between and across ministries, departments and agencies within the envelope.

He said that the budget projected and estimated recurrent N139.5 billion, representing 23 per cent, while N407.5 billion, representing 77 per cent, would be for capital expenditure.

“The budget size did not have any change from what the governor presented but there were internal changes; some codes were changed to enable the government to access funds lying there to meet urgent needs. Some institutions such as the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University and Nwafor Orizu College of Education had more funds allocated to their recurrent expenditures and subvention to enable them to run them more effectively,” he said.

Also speaking, Nonso Igwe, representing Ogbaru I State Constituency, said the executive demonstrated a high level of prudence in managing public funds in the outgoing year.

Mr Igwe, who is the chairman of the Committee on Finance and Appropriation, said a remarkable change in the budget was the increase of the outlay for the Ministry of Industry from N10 million to about N547 million to support the industrialisation agenda of the government.

(NAN)