By Cajetan Mmuta
Members of the Anambra State House of Assembly passed into law the 2023 budget of N259.9 billion.
This came less than one month after the State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo presented the budget of the state to the House of Assembly.
The passage followed the adoption of the report of the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation during plenary.
Mr Nonso Okafor, the Deputy Chairman of the committee during the passage said the capital expenditure was increased from the initial N164.2 billion to N164.4 billion based on the needs of the ministries, departments and agencies, representing 63.2 per cent of the budget.
Okafor said that the recurrent expenditure was N95.4 billion, representing 36.8 per cent.
“In carrying out the assignment given to the committee by this house, we organised and invited MDAs for bilateral discussions and thorough scrutiny of the 2023 Budget.
“We recommend that the budget size be retained except for little adjustments based on the needs of some ministries, departments and agencies.
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“That the sum of N259,938,121,905 is approved for the service of the Anambra state government for the year ending, Dec. 31, 2023, and for related purposes,” he said.
The Speaker of the House, Rt Hon Uchenna Okafor commended the committee for thorough scrutiny of the budget, while presiding over a voice vote for the adoption of the report.
The house passed the bill after the voice vote and the speaker directed the Clerk of the House, Mrs Esther Anaetoh, to send a copy of the bill to Gov. Soludo for his assent.
“I commend all the standing committees for carrying out their mandates as expected. We recognised the place of budget to accelerate and drive good governance in the state.
“We urge residents to continue to support Gov. Soludo’s administration,” he said.
The Speaker also announced that the House will hold a valedictory session on Dec. 8, for Late Dr Nnamdi Okafor, Majority Leader of the House who died on Aug. 24, in South Africa.
