Fubara presents 2025 budget to four-member Rivers assembly

Siminalayi Fubara, governor of Rivers state, has presented a 2025 budget proposal of N1.1 trillion to the Victor Oko-Jumbo-led state house of assembly.

Fubara presented the appropriation bill, tagged the “Budget of Inclusive Growth and Development,” to the four-member assembly on Monday.

A total of N462,254,153,418 was allocated to recurrent expenditure and N678,088,433,692 for capital projects. This brings the total appropriation to N1,188,962,739,932.

Speaking during the budget presentation, Fubara said the state has recorded “unprecedented investments and significant impact” in road infrastructure, healthcare, education, and security.

The governor also announced a major boost in the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR) in 2024.

He projected the 2024 IGR would exceed N300 billion by December—an increase of over N100 billion compared to 2023.

Fubara noted that the growth was achieved without introducing new taxes, attributing the success to improved domestic resource mobilisation.

He said the state had met all its 2024 debt obligations without taking new loans, achieving full implementation of its recurrent budget.

“We are expecting the internally generated revenue for 2024 to close at over N300 billion by the end of December 2024, which is over N100 billion more than the total receipts for 2023,” Fubara said.

“Mr Speaker, it is worthy of note that this is the first time the State Government would record a historic N100 billion increase in IGR in a succeeding year.

“Most interestingly, the phenomenal increase was realized without raising or imposing new taxes, which underscores the success of our administration’s commitment to enhancing domestic resource mobilization as the primary source for funding the government’s expenditures and the measures we have put in place to drive this vision.

“The organic increases in our internally generated revenue also show that the State’s domestic economy is on the right path to real and sustainable growth and that it is only a matter of time before we realize our abiding drive for economic self-reliance and sustainability.

“Furthermore, we funded our expenditures and met all our debt repayment obligations for fiscal year 2024 without taking any new loans as a deliberate strategy to reduce deficit financing in line with our commitment to prudent management of available public funds to ensure real and sustainable economic growth and development.

“Mr Speaker, on the expenditure side, the good news is that the 2024 recurrent budget was fully funded, thereby recording a 100 per cent implementation.”

THE RIVERS BUDGET CRISIS

In December 2023, Fubara presented the 2024 budget to five-member of the Edison Ehie-led Rivers house of assembly.

Since 2023, the Rivers assembly has been factionalised following the feud between Fubara and Wike, minister of the federal capital territory (FCT).

The pro-Wike lawmakers, who are the majority, are being led by Martin Amaewhule.

In October 2023, Edison resigned as lawmaker to become chief of staff to the governor, as Oko-Jumbo took over as speaker to four-member faction of the assembly.

In January, a federal high court in Abuja voided and set aside the presentation and passage of the state’s 2024 budget.

James Omotoso, the presiding judge, ordered Fubara to re-present the budget to the “legally” constituted house of assembly led by Amaewhule.

The Rivers governor refused to re-present the 2024 budget.

In another suit, the Amaewhule faction of the assembly sought an order of interlocutory injunction restraining the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the commercial banks, and the attorney-general of federation (AGF) from honouring any financial instruction from Fubara.

In October, a federal high court in Abuja restrained the CBN from further disbursing financial allocations to the Rivers state government.

Joyce Abdulmalik, the presiding judge, had held that monies from the federation account should not be released to the state pending the passage of a lawful appropriation act by a “validly constituted” house of assembly.

The judge ruled that Fubara was wrong to have presented the state’s 2024 appropriation bill to a five-member assembly “that was not properly constituted”.

In December 2024, the court of appeal in Abuja set aside the judgment restraining the CBN from disbursing financial allocations to the Rivers state government.