ENUGU NIGERIA: Since, His Excellency, Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State Nigeria has presented his year 2025 budget tagged, ” BUDGET OF EXPONENTIAL GROWTH AND INCLUSIVE PROSPERITY”, reactions have continued to trail the workability of his administration’s plans to achieve such budget.
9News Nigeria reports that Governor Mbah was among the first set of governors that presented the year 2025 fiscal budget before the state house of Assembly as required by law. Some other states are no doubt yet to present theirs at respective state expectedly before the year raps up, hence , the date of holiday for the legislatures is close by.
Never in the history of Enugu State had such a humongous expenditure framework been contemplated, conceived, or crafted. Never in the history of Nigeria had such a big-size expenditure ticket been made by a non-oil-producing state that does not enjoy the 13% derivative fund accruing from the federal allocation to the sub-nationals.
The budget structure in itself is amazing and points to the development plans of the Mbah Administration, targeting a whooping, if ambitious, &30 billion GDP growth from the lowly &4.4 billion GDP Mbah met on ground when he came to power, and the reduction of the state’s poverty headcount index to zero percent.The idea is to build infrastructure, world-class social services; investments by enhanced ease of doing business and attract investors.
Out of the N971.84 billion (almost N1 trillion), budgeted, a whooping sum of N837.9 billion, representing 86% of the total budget sum, is slated for capital expenditure, while N133.1 billion, being 14% of the expenditure plan, is projected for recurrent expenditure. By implication and in comparison to the 2024 budget of “Disruptive Economic Growth,” capital expenditure rises by 7% while recurrent expenditure is crashed to the abysmal low, from 21% to 14%. This is a signpost to Mbah’s determination to channel the resources of the state to infrastructural development, putting an unblinking eye on
social services with education alone, as it was in the 2024 fiscal year, securing 33% of the entire budget sum.
Budget is a projected estimate of inflows and expenditure framework. Where does Mbah hope to raise such a humongous budget sum to the tune of almost a trillion naira, given the relative paucity of statutory allocation accrued to the state? That is the same question as was raised last year after he had presented the budget to the House. If that was asked over what could now be seen comparatively as a paltry sum of N521.5 billion, how much more now that the bar has been raised to such ostensibly level of almost 100%?
The obvious fact is that Mbah has what Raymond Williams in his book, Illuminations, calls “Complex-Seeing,” the uncommon ability to see with the third eye. Besides governance and management buravura at the tips of the Enugu smart young governor, Mbah understands to a day the whys and wherefores of the currency of money.
He is a financial generalissimo, the master on the chessboard, meandering through the labyrinth of financial turf with expertise ease and perspicuity. While he would not focus on federal allocation,which obviously cannot scratch the surface of this astronomical volume of budget, he has thoughtfully crafted alternative finance models without even pandering to what could ordinarily be considered the low-hanging-fruit alternative – borrowing. The budget is largely domestic revenue enabled.
And it does not even imply that taxes would be raised. No! As the biblical Samson would say, “Out of the one who eats came something to eat; out of the strong came something sweet”(Judges 14:14). For Mbah’s Enugu State, out of the moribund came something to eat; as dry bones receive sinews and rise again. International Conference Centre, Hotel Presidential, United Palm Produce Limited, Niger Gas, Sunrise Flour Mill, to mention but five, are revenue-yielding assets reactivated by the Mbah Administration. It takes a third eye to identify these assets and put them to enhanced productive yields.
As at October 2024, available statistics showed that the 2024 budget had a performance record of 88%, and given the bullish projects ongoing, the 260 smart schools, the 260 type 2 primary healthcare hospitals, the over 1000 projects, by the time accruing revenue and expenditure for the remaining parts of the year crystalize, the 2024 budget shall have recorded 100% performance indices on all fours.
Of interest is the astronomical growth of the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) which stood at N26.8 billion in 2022, driven to N37.4 billion by the Mbah Administration at the end of 2023, now revved up to N144.4 billion as at September 2024. It is hoped that by the end of the year, it shall have been driven to N200 billion revenue target. This is a product of uncommon financial intelligence.
It takes a large heart to take such an audacious move unfazed by the paucity of funds statutorily accrued to the state. Mbah targets to make Enugu State one of the three big economies in Nigeria, in the order of Lagos State, and this budget is a testament to the feasibility of this audacity of hope.
Looking at the total capital expenditure outlay for the fuscal year 2025 projected at N837.94 billion, the economic sector gets a lion share of 55%, covering road infrastructure, agriculture, transportation, electricity, trade and investment and so on; the social service sector gains 41.2%, as Mbah’s bullish zeal for enhanced social services sweeps across the 260 wards of the state by way of education and healthcare, touching the cradle of the grassroots.
This is commendable. Mbah’s Enugu State stands a towering monumental reference standard to other subnationals. The lesson to learn here is that without oil, Nigeria can stretch to any length of economic growth only if our leaders can think creatively in the order of Peter Mbah of Enugu State. Mbah sees wealth in the streets of Nigeria galloping unrestrained. If we can think, we can put a wedge to the tossing billows and have unfettered access to it.
The testimonies are on the lips of the people of Enugu State, who ,since the creation of the state in 1991, had not had it so good. With this budget estimates, it is clear that Mbah’s vision of exponential economic growth and inclusive prosperity for Enugu State is evidently fait accompli as stated in this piece captioned ” Budget Extraordinaire: Mbah Unleashes Unprecedented Expenditure Plan of Exponential Economic Growth and Inclusive Prosperity put up by Reuben Onyishi from Enugu Nigeria.
Recall that the Enugu state Budget was presented tuesday, 26th November 2024, by His Excellency Governor Peter Mbah, before the floor of Enugu State House of Assembly, tagged “The 2025 Budget of Exponential Growth and Inclusive Prosperity” as 9News Nigeria reports.
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