Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu on Tuesday presented a budget proposal of N186.6 billion for the 2022 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly.

Presenting the budget tagged: “Budget of Sustained Growth and Consolidation” Mr Ugwuanyi said the 2022 budget estimate was 9.9 per cent higher than the 2021 budget.

According to the governor, N71 billion of the total budget (38 per cent) will go into recurrent expenditure while N115 billion (62 per cent) will be used for capital expenditure.

He noted that the proposed budget would be financed using the FAAC, Value Added Tax (VAT), Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and excess crude money.

Mr Ugwuanyi explained that the 2022 budget was prepared in line with his administration’s vision to maintain higher budgetary allocation in capital expenditure.

The governor said the capital expenditure would be channeled into the completion of all ongoing projects including construction of Oji River Township Stadium, construction of bridges, Nike Road, and Agbai Road among other projects.

On the performance of the 2021 budget, Ugwuanyi said the 2021 budget achieved 33.2 per cent success as at the end of the third quarter of the outgoing year.

He added that the state government generated N80.8b representing 73.4 per cent recurrent revenue as against N110b contained in the 2021 budget.

The governor, however, maintained that in spite of the shortfalls in the revenue generation, the state government was able to meet up its financial obligations.

The speaker, Edward Ubosi, said the house would give speedy passage to the appropriation bill to maintain the January-December budget circle.

The speaker directed Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to come for their budget defence next week so that the lawmakers can pass the budget.

(NAN)