Uzodinma: 50% implementation of 2024 budget will ease economic hardship

Hope Uzodinma, governor of Imo state, says a 50 percent execution of the 2024 budget will ease current economic hardship in the country.

Uzodinma gave the assurance on Monday while speaking to state house correspondents, Abuja, after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the presidential villa.

In addition to inviting the president to his swearing-in ceremony for his second term of office on January 15, Uzodimma said he visited Tinubu to wish him a happy New Year and to provide an update on Imo state’s achievements.

He also lauded the reforms of the president 

“The Progressive Governors Forum, the APC governors, members of APC as a party, the federal government, a government that belongs to APC as a party, we are on the same page. So what we expect is very simple and has been clearly defined in the last Appropriation Act, signed by the President,” he said. 

“If you look at the provisions in that Act and the number of infrastructure and capital projects proposed by the President, if we are able to have even 50 percent budget performance on that document, it will not be the same Nigeria. 

“So we already saw the presentation and here we have a President, and like you know, in leadership, every leader must be able to articulate his vision on a marble slab and every vision is like a journey.”

He said the next step is to begin the journey once the destination has been established.

“So by January this year to December 31, which is the lifespan of that Act, I’m sure the initial pains, occasioned by some of those reform policies, like the subsidy removal on petroleum products, the exchange rate escalation, will be cured,” the governor said.

“In my conversations with some stakeholders in the country, we have had instances where reforms were carried out in some countries, some policies that looked initially as unfriendly policies, two, three months of gestation period becomes the darling of all stakeholders.

“So I’m confident that the initial period of the takeoff of some of these policies, that will give us a more robust economy, will soon be over and Nigeria will begin to enjoy the product of the new vision.”

On December 30, 2023,  the two arms of the national assembly passed the 2024 appropriation bill, increasing its size from N27.5 trillion proposed by President Bola Tinubu to N28.7 trillion.