Peter Mbah signs N521bn ‘budget of disruptive economic growth’ in Enugu

Peter Mbah, governor of Enugu, has signed the state’s 2024 appropriation bill of N521.5 billion into law.

The budget comprises N414.3 billion earmarked for capital expenditure which represents 79 percent of the N521.5 billion, and N107.2 billion recurrent expenditure, which is 21 percent of the estimate.

Speaking after the signing, Mbah said the budget would “drive disruptive economic growth, radical infrastructural development, and efficient service delivery”.

“What this budget signing means to the people of Enugu is that we are going to be spending over N400bn on capital projects in the next year,” the governor said.

“This is the first time in the history of the state that we are spending that size of funds on capital projects because we are spending 20 times more than what has been typically our capital expenditure outlay in Enugu state.

“We called this the ‘Budget of Disruptive Economic Growth’ based on the size of our capital expenditure.

“It also means that we are going to have large economic activities in Enugu state. 

“You can imagine an economy that is typically used to doing N20bn capital expenditure now going to witness over N400bn capital expenditure.

“It is going to be monumental in the ways our people are lifted out of poverty and in the ways economic activities will blossom.”

On revenue generation, the governor said  the 2024 appropriation law would “rely heavily on internally generated revenue (IGR)”.

He urged members of the executive arm of government to focus on robust revenue mobilisation and service delivery.

“We are talking about less than 12 percent of our revenue size that we are going to borrow to execute this budget,” Mbah said.

“That is enormous as we are expecting to mobilize over N300bn from our domestic sources, and that has not happened before.

“What this means is that we are all going to work tirelessly to ensure that these revenues are realised.

“It also means that for us at the executive council, our meetings would largely be on our revenue performance.”