The Governor of Anambra State, Prof Chukwuma Soludo on Thursday presented a revised 2021 budget to the Anambra State House of Assembly, even as declared state of emergency on rebuilding the road infrastructure and traffic management.
Presenting the revised budget on the floor of Anambra State House of Assembly, Soludo explained that the purpose of the 2022 Revised budget is to reflect current realities, challenges, and priorities of the new administration and Ndi Anambra, saying, “We are undaunted by the state of the treasury.”
“We have seriously started reforming our system of tax administration to significantly ramp up our internally generated revenue over the coming years.
“As promised, we hit the ground running from day one, putting in 8hours and 45 minutes in office on the first day, reflecting the humongous challenges facing the state as well as our full consciousness that ours is an agenda with a deadline.
“Our vision is to transform Anambra into a livable and prosperous smart megacity—- to become the preferred destination to live, learn, invest, work, relax/enjoy.”
The governor said that the agenda of his government is predicated on four strong pillars which include, robust economic transformation for a new industrial-tech- leisure hub; a comprehensive social agenda for a human capital bank that is productive at home and exportable abroad; governance, rule of law and new value system; and a clean, green, planned and sustainable communities, markets, and cities.
According to him, his government is working on a mixture of financing options, (including debt that is ring-fenced to fund bankable projects and/or infrastructure with impacts on the economy) to guarantee efficient and effective service delivery to the people while ensuring fiscal sustainability over the medium to longer terms.
While saying that the details will be laid out in the 2023 budget, Soludo gave the size of the revised budget to be about N170 billion, versus the existing appropriation of N142 billion (with the capital expenditure accounting for 64% compared to 57% previously).
“Capital expenditure increased by 33% from N81 billion to N108 billion while Recurrent expenditure increased marginally by 0.79% from N60 billion.
“We have declared a state of emergency on rebuilding our road infrastructure and traffic management. About N52 billion or about 31% of the total budget is for the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure and we intend to simultaneously invest in roads in most of the local governments, paying special attention to our urban regeneration agenda.
“We have requested the Federal Government to kindly intervene on emergency basis on a number of federal roads in the state that have become nightmarish death traps. We confidently expect their urgent responsive action.”
“The foundation of Anambra as a Smart Mega City will be tasking all of us to the limit. But we are Ndi Anambra! The irrepressible Anambra Spirit and the collective action of a people that loves their homeland dearly are what we will continue to call and draw upon to move ahead.
“This Anambra Spirit and collective action came alive during my visits to Lagos and Abuja last week to meet with our people. The enthusiasm and generous pledges of our people towards our homeland security demonstrated once again that Anambra can be anything we desire and work that it should be.
“I am emboldened by the massive support and solidarity of the people as we face the threat of common but organized criminals who want to run our people out of town and take our wealth and land by force. But we are Ndi Anambra, and together, we shall overcome! Give us the budget urgently, and by the time our people come home for Christmas, we will all be proud that we are serving the people well”, the governor added.”
