On Tuesday, Governor Alex Otti of Abia State presented the 2024 fiscal year budget estimate of a whooping N567.2 billion to the State House of Assembly, naming it the “Budget of New Beginning.“
In 2023, the state budget estimate was N160 billion meaning 2024 budget is an incredible 350% leap over the previous year.
Addressing the state legislators, Governor Otti emphasized that the proposed budget aims to enhance public infrastructure in alignment with new development goals of focusing on improving access and service quality in the social sector, particularly allocating over 20% and 15% of the total budget to education and health, respectively.
In contrast to the 2023 projection, which allocated 53% to capital expenditure, Otti’s 2024 fiscal year budget allocates a historic 84% of the total expenditure to capital projects, with 16% dedicated to recurrent expenditure, compared to the 47% in the 2023 estimates.
The budget estimates total revenue at N166,077,717,058, sourced from internally generated revenue (IGR), the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, grants from multilateral organizations, and other revenue sources. To finance the deficit of N401,162,378,914, the governor says N385,271,027,214 will be borrowed. Approximately 50% of the borrowing will be sourced externally, while the remainder will come from local sources.
Governor Otti – an ex-banker and former CEO of Diamond Bank Nigeria before veering into politics, assured that all borrowings in the 2024 fiscal year would be strictly committed to capital development projects, targeting critical infrastructure areas such as roads, schools, and medical facilities. He was confident that positive economic impact of these projects, will generate returns to facilitate the smooth fulfillment of the state’s obligations to creditors,
This is Gov. Otti’s first full year budget, having come into office at the end of May this year. He said he was hopeful 2024 budget implementation will exceed 60% of 2022.
Reflecting on the successful implementation of the 2023 budget of N160.5 billion, Otti expressed confidence that this budget presentation, being the first full-year budget by his government, reflects his administration’s priorities and consolidate gains from the previous budget cycle.
Gov Otti is the only Labour Party governor in the federation.
In his short remark, the Speaker of the House, Emmanuel Emeruwa described the budget as “robust and capital-intensive.” and assured that the House of Assembly would consider the bill promptly to help meet the yearning aspirations of the government and the people.
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