Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, yesterday, presented to the State House of Assembly, the 2021 Budget estimates of N169.85 billion for consideration and passage.
Presenting the budget proposal tagged: “Budget of Recovery and Continued Growth”, Govovernor Ugwuanyi disclosed that it “is 13.8 percent higher than our revised 2020 budget”.
The governor explained that the budget proposal was carefully designed to strategically enhance the recovery of the state from the drawbacks of 2020, occasioned by the unexpected and unpleasant outbreak of the COVID-19 and the negative effects of the #EndSARS protests, which were hijacked by miscreants and hoodlums to unleash mayhem on the country, “pushing back all the efforts at economic recovery from COVID-19 challenge”.
Governor Ugwuanyi added that these setbacks to the full implementation of the 2020 budget ensued shortly after his administration commenced payment of the new Minimum Wage of N30,000 in February this year with its consequential adjustment.
“We had adjusted to this new cost centre and set in motion procurement processes for the delivery of services to Ndi Enugu as appropriated by this honourable House. Suddenly, we slept in one world and woke up in another, confronted with the unpleasant news of a strange illness – COVID-19,” he said.
The governor noted that out of the total budget size of N169.85 billion, N68.711billion, representing 40% of the total budget is for Recurrent Expenditure, while the sum of N101.1billion is for Capital Expenditure, representing 60% of the budget size.