Governor Bassey Otu of Cross River on Thursday presented a budget of N250 billion for 2024 to the state House of Assembly for approval.
Presenting the budget titled: “The Peoples First Budget’’, Otu said that the figure was made up of N154billion capital expenditure and N96billion recurrent expenditure.
He said that the budget was aligned with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) goal 11, which focused on zero hunger, goal 111 which focused on good health and wellbeing and goal 1V which focused on quality education.
“The 2023 budget of quantum infinitum which my administration inherited sought to transform as well as empower citizens through wealth creation and employment generation, improvement of educational standard, access to healthcare among others.
“So, we intend to consolidate on the gains made by my predecessor as well as deliver quality service to our people.
“For the 2024 fiscal year, the government is expecting N133 billion from the Federal Allocation Account (FAAC) while independent revenue is estimated at N35 billion,” he said.
Otu said that the budget would priotise agriculture, education, healthcare delivery, environment, infrastructure, youth and sports development, security, tourism and general administration.
The governor said as a newly elected governor, he would continue from where the previous administration stopped by continuing with some of priority projects while adding some innovative ones.
“The 2023 budget of quantum infinitum which my administration inherited sought to transform as well as empower citizens through wealth creation and employment generation, improvement of educational standard, access to healthcare among others.
“So, we intend to consolidate on the gains made by my predecessor as well as deliver quality service to our people.
“For the 2024 fiscal year, the government is expecting N133 billion from the Federal Allocation Account (FAAC) while independent revenue is estimated at N35 billion,” he said.
