BY Tony Edike

ENUGU—Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State , yesterday, presented a budget estimate of N93,287,000, 000 for the 2014 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly .

The estimate represents over  N9 billion or 11 per cent increase  over  that of the current year  which  is N83,773,203,408 (Eighty-three billion, seven hundred and seventy three million, two hundred and three thousand, four hundred and eight naira).

Governor Chime, who presented the estimate tagged, “Budget of Actualisation” to the lawmakers at the State House of Assembly complex , said it was made up of N39, 342,549,163 as recurrent expenditure, representing 42 per cent of the budget size, while N53, 944,450,837 was for capital expenditure, representing 58 per cent of the entire budget.

He said the government expected a recurrent revenue of N57, 490,114,000 which it intended to realise through internally-generated revenue estimated at nine N9,190,114,000 ,representing 16 per cent and its share of Federal Revenue put at N48,300,000,000 or 84 per cent.

Works and infrastructure  received the highest sectoral allocation of N15.623 billion and this, according to the governor, is to enable the government actualise its ambition of ensuring that all on-going urban and rural roads and other infrastructural development projects are completed and commissioned before the end of the 2014.

The Education sub-sector came second with N5.78 billion covering allocations to the Ministry of Education, State Universal Education Board, the Post-Primary School Management Board, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT, Institute of Management and Technology, IMT, College of Education (Technical), State Scholarship Board and the Science & Vocational Schools Management Board.

According to the estimate, rural development and health received N4.7766 billion and N4.124 billion respectively, while agriculture got N3.857.55.

The governor said the sum of N2.613 billion was set aside for urban and rural water supply, while adequate provision was also made for the payment of the state counterpart fund contribution in order to be able to access the World Bank-assisted funds for the Community and Social Development Projects, CSDP.

Receiving the proposed estimate, speaker of the state House of Assembly,  Eugene Odo, thanked the governor for raising the profile of the state with his pace-setting and enduring achievements, even when the state’s income was among the lowest in the country.

He expressed satisfaction that the budget covered the development imperatives of the state and assured that the House would give it speedy attention.