Abia State governor, Dr. Alex Otti, before the members of the house of Assembly as he delivers his speech on the body of budget draft. Image credit: Alexotti
(EPSN)—Dr. Alex otti, the governor of Abia State, has today, in line with his economic plans to build and revamp the state’s structural capacity and complete his ongoing huge projects, presented a 2024 budget of N567, 240, 095, 972. 00 to the State Assembly . (Abia State 2024 budget)
He said that the budget contains his holistic plans and programmes aimed at the development of the state in terms of industrial expansions, creation of jobs and the continuation of the State’s road construction and others.
Speaking at the government house, the governor acknowledged the members of the house and others in witness of the presentation. “I stand before you, Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, fellow Abians, friends and well-wishers with a great sense of responsibility, grateful for the sacred honour to present the 2024 budget proposal to this Honourable Assembly and offer our people at home and in the diaspora.”
According to Alex, this budget will throw “an insight into our holistic plans and programmes for the rebuilding and restoration of our advantages as a state in ways that stimulate the economy” and will financially enable his government to “create jobs for our teeming youth population and set us on a new development trajectory” perform all its economic responsibilities.
He also recalled his past tours to Abia Local governments and villages in search of people who would support his 2023 governorship election, of which he ,of course, succeeded and was declared winner at the election polls. “Twelve months ago, we were in your communities and clans selling our ideas for a New Abia to the electorates, making a strong case that we must take a new direction in order to fulfil the inherent promise of this great land.
“Three months later, precisely on March 18, 2023, you elected us to lead the state. The message of our electoral victory was direct: the people want a clear break from the past. They want a New Abia, a state where the government works in service of the common people, and not just the privileged few.”
The governor, who has barely spent 10 months in office gratefully, showing a dint of hard work and conscious commitment to the execution of his visions for the state, told Abia residents “I consider the opportunity to serve our people at this time the greatest honour of my life” and believes that it “would be proper at this point to commend the leadership and members of the State House of Assembly for the smooth and harmonious relationship that exists between the executive and legislative arms of government.”
Alex commended the integrity of the Abia State justice system, saying that “the judiciary in the state has also been very outstanding” this will allow for progress and has made the state “a land where justice would be the first condition of humanity” free from manipulations with the intention to enslave the public.
He also revealed that despite “the fact that the budgetary foundation of the government for the 2023 fiscal year did not come from us” his government did its best to “hit the ground running from the very minute the oath of office was administered” and had begun with “the evacuation of the mountains of refuse that had taken over the streets” of Abia.
Dr. Alex otti explained challenges faced within the first 100 days of his installation as the governor of Abia State. “We were therefore constrained in so many ways, even when we tried as much as the law allowed to redirect government expenditures to areas of utmost priorities to meet the immediate demands of responsible governance,” the governor said.
Among his completed numerous projects and others underway are “several roads that were previously impassable, including MCC by Old Express, Umuimo and Udeagbala roads in Aba” which he said “have been completely reconstructed and opened for public use” and this is a show of his commitment during his “first 100 days in office” to rescue Abia people from the ache of bad roads.
He expressed confidence in the construction company, Julius Berger, to deliver quality service and also emphasised that his government will do its best to revive the state’s overall economic activities. “Mr Speaker, Honourable Members and fellow Abians, it gives me great joy to report that for weeks now, Julius Berger, one of the biggest names in road construction and civil engineering projects have been at work on Port Harcourt Road, deploying the most sophisticated equipment and engineering professionals to the job because we made it clear that in the New Abia, we either get the best or nothing,” governor Alex said. (3)
“With a completion timeline of not more than 18 months, our expectation is that by the beginning of 2025, we shall see a boom in economic activities along that corridor, with many of the businesses that left years ago returning, in addition to several new ones.
“In Umuahia, we are speedily completing the Ossah- Abia Tower/Okpara Square road reconstruction and expansion project for smooth flow of traffic into the capital city. It is our firm belief that the major entry points to the capital city should make a statement. It is in the light of this that work would soon start from the boundary in Onuimo to the Abia Tower. (Abia State 2024 budget)
“This is in addition to several palliative works going on in most parts of the city to improve intra-city transportation, as well as support business activities along important economic corridors.
Beyond our modest progress in the restoration of urban road infrastructure, we are also working in several communities across the state to enable the seamless movement of our people and transportation of agro-commodities from the rural to the urban centres and improve travel experience from one part of the state to another. With the coming of the new mayors, we hope to see even greater progress in the rehabilitation of rural roads.
“We are very particular about road construction because of our understanding that roads are major economic enablers, aiding trade and commerce, supporting agriculture as well as boosting the appeal of our major cities to both residents and investors.”
According to the governor, his administration is, however, faced with the problem of limited available resources to execute all its projects. But his government, working with the State ministry work and other bodies, will devise a means to fill the gap to the best of its effort.
“Our ambition has been constrained by the very limited resources at our disposal but we have been very innovative in our approach to dealing with the challenges that confront us,” he explained.
“To make up for the shortfalls in resources, we returned the core engineering team of the State Ministry of Works to the field, under the Direct Labour Agency, creating an environment that encourages them to deploy their professional expertise more practically and I can tell you that the results have been fantastic.”
Dr. Alex otti also elaborated on Sectors impacted by his new administration, using resources sourced by his own government as against the past government’s limited budget. “In addition to expanding the network of motorable roads in the state, we have also taken special interest in healthcare delivery services and education.
“In health, we have successfully renovated the long-abandoned Abia State Specialist Hospital and Diagnostics Centre, the Eye Clinic at the facility can now compete favourably with the best anywhere in the country and across the state, gradual renovation and rehabilitation works are taking place across the general hospitals.
“Furthermore, access to healthcare in the state has improved especially with the free medical services initiative of the administration which will run until the end of the year in all public healthcare facilities. Thousands of Abians in rural and urban communities have benefited from this project which covers diagnostics and laboratory services, counselling and supply of drugs.
“In the education sector, we are also making tremendous improvements in the teaching and learning environment with strategic investments in the renovation of schools across the 17 LGAs of the state. We are also working hard to return professionalism to the teaching profession through regular training and retraining programmes. We are determined to improve the competences of our teachers in tune with the demands of the modern world.
“For our administration, the focus is to turn the schools into a fit-for-purpose environment for the training of world champions, young men and women with the skills to compete with their peers from all parts of the world.
We are working to phase out rote learning and over the next few years, we shall migrate to new learning platforms and methods that are designed to not just make learning more effective, but also prepare the pupils and students for the realities of the world they are living in.
“In the education and health sectors, the morale of the personnel has been boosted with regular payment of salaries and other entitlements. Our teachers and health workers, like their counterparts in other sectors, now know when to expect their salaries and can plan accordingly. Not for once have they been disappointed in the last 6 months.
“Umu nne m Ndi Abia, we have also made great strides in security through proper support to the security agencies including procurement of operational vehicles and other hardware necessary for effective security operations in all parts of the state, including prompt response in periods of emergencies.
We launched Operation Crush in August this year to deal with the menace of violent crimes. I am glad to report that our determination to make the state safe for residents and investors has seen us diminish the capacity of the criminals to strike in any part of the state. Although we still have pockets of challenges in a few places, the verdict is that Abia is now one of the safest places to live and do business.
“Our Light UP Abia has seen us invest extensively in the procurement and installation of solar-energy powered lights for major streets in our urban centres. We have since extended the project to LGA headquarters across the state and the logic is simple: in addition to extending business hours for our entrepreneurs, proper street lighting also aids security as no criminal likes to operate under the light.”
He reaffirmed that his government “shall work to expand the frontiers of opportunities for our youth population” and that he is “glad to report that in the last 3 months, we have, through the ministries of digital economy and SMEs, budget and planning and several other organs of the executive arm of government pioneered initiatives that are structured to improve the skills of our youths” and prepare them for various job “opportunities” globally.
The governor here presented the full note address of the 2024 budget. Today’s budget presentation is therefore significant in many ways; first it is the first full year budget by our government,” he said
“We have deliberately structured the key items in the budget to reflect the priorities of the administration on very important frontiers especially road infrastructure, human capital development, health and human services, social support initiatives, digitalisation of the service delivery mechanisms of the government for efficiency amongst other objectives which are strategically tailored towards opening up the economy to local and global investors.
“Our goal is to consolidate on the modest gains made in the 2023 budget cycle, especially in the last six months where our strategic investments in public infrastructure and social services, in addition to consistently meeting our obligations to civil servants and pensioners have combined to enable us keep the economy afloat in what has been a very difficult season as a result of certain realities that are not of our making, especially the removal of fuel subsidy, massive depreciation of the Naira and the many other economic headwinds the country is grappling with.
“As Mr. Speaker and Honourable Members of this House are also aware, we have seen a steep rise in inflation which has no doubt distorted economic plans and projections made by businesses, governments and households at the beginning of the year. Adjusting to this sharp rise in prices of goods and services has been very demanding especially for a new government with immense responsibilities on its shoulders, working with a budget made by its predecessor on the basis of assumptions that no longer hold.
“On the basis of facts available to my office, we have done quite well in the implementation of the 2023 budget of N160.5 billion and the projection is that we would go well past the 60% budget implementation mark achieved in 2022. We have remained transparent and open in the presentation of our budget performance report and this has helped in giving the citizens a good understanding of how public resources are being used. The target is to do better in 2024 by making the most of the feedback we got from the public over the last two quarters.
“The 2024 budget proposal which we christened the “Budget of New Beginning” targets the expansion of our public infrastructure in line with our new development targets, scaling up access and quality service delivery in the social sector, with special focus on education and health where we are proposing to commit more than 20% and 15% of the aggregate budget spending respectively. (Abia State 2024 budget)
The State is proposing a total expenditure of Five Hundred and Sixty-Seven Billion, Two Hundred and Forty Million, Ninety-Five Thousand, Nine Hundred and Seventy-Two Naira (N567, 240, 095, 972. 00) in the 2024 fiscal year.
“The above figure, in nominal terms, represents more than N400 billion rise from the 2023 estimate of N160.5 billion although when adjusted for inflation and fall in the value of the naira, the reality becomes starkly different.
“The key distinction in the 2024 budget estimate, however, is in the direction of spending. While the 2023 projection allocated 53% of the entire budget for capital expenditure, our target in the 2024 fiscal year is to spend 84% of the total expenditure on capital projects and commit 16% to recurrent expenditure, as against 47% in the 2023 estimates.
“Of the proposed figure, government’s estimated total revenue is N166,077,717,058 including earnings from our IGR channels, Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), grants from multilateral organisations and income from other revenue sources that will be available to the state government over the course of the accounting year.
We plan to finance the deficit of N401, 162, 378, 914 partly by new borrowings estimated at N385, 271, 027, 214. 50% of this borrowing will be sourced externally, whilst the balance will be procured domestically.
“It must at this point be stated that all borrowing in the 2024 fiscal year would be committed strictly to capital development projects with direct impact on the economy of the state, especially roads, schools and medical facilities. The projection is that the impact of these projects on the general economy in the medium to long term would generate the sufficient returns that would enable the state meet its obligation to the creditors smoothly and ultimately pay off the loans in due course.
“In the same vein, 40.07% of the total budget is proposed to be committed to the social sector with the bulk of the resources going into education (20%), healthcare (15.04%), youth and sport development, (3.17%).
“Items proposed in the social sector include the renovation of 300 public primary and secondary schools across the 17 LGAs of the state, infrastructure upgrade at the State College of Education, the retooling of 3 technical schools across the 3 senatorial districts, the procurement and installation of world class modern health facilities at 3 general hospitals across the 3 senatorial districts of the state, the construction of a standard medical village to stem the tide of medical tourism, the construction of the Nsulu Sports and Entertainment Complex, construction of community sports hubs in all the 17 LGAs of the state, construction of digital skills and innovation centres across the 3 senatorial districts and so much more.” (2)
Alex said that he has no other motives than to serve Abia citizens and deliver good public service to the people, working with various departments and authorities under his government.
He also promised to maintain his decision to bring the government to the grassroots, and that he will rule out any form of insecurity and illegal activities that will bedevil the economic progress of the people and state in its entirety.
“Our intent is clear: we are prioritising the projects that have direct impact on the economic and social life of the citizenry in line with our commitment to using the levers of government to serve the needs of the common people.
“Mr Speaker, I want to especially appreciate this Honourable House for the speedy passage of the Greater Aba Development Authority (GADA) Bill. I am also glad to announce that I have signed the bill into law and going forward, GADA will serve as the administrative vehicle to drive the social and economic development of Aba in line with my campaign promise to give priority attention to the rapid development of Aba and ultimately return it to its glory days.
“There has never been any doubt about what we intend to do in Aba and I am expecting that with the setting up of GADA as a legal administrative structure, developments in Aba will be better streamlined as we find in other major cities across the world.
“As I promised at a media briefing earlier in the month, we shall be implementing a pay rise for our civil servants to reflect the present economic realities in the country. This shall be implemented in the New Year and provision for that has been made in the 2024 budget. The government will continue to prioritise the welfare of its employees even as we expect to see greater commitment from our civil servants who are major stakeholders in the implementation of our governance agenda.
“We shall continue to support the conventional security establishments to improve the security of life and property in all parts of the state. Let me repeat my earlier warning that criminality in whatever guise shall have no place in the New Abia. We are open for business and any threat to this goal shall be met with the full weight of the law.”
He also empathized with the Abia residents, who are feeling the harsh conditions of the economic challenges across Nigeria. And encourage budding entrepreneurs to remain determined, as his government is going to ensure that they get the support the need to grow in their dreams and businesses.
“We understand the economic realities in the country and shall continue to do everything in our powers to support individuals seeking to make an honest living through hard work in legitimate endeavours. The government is already making arrangements to revive as many of our moribund industries as available resources and economic reasoning permit. (Abia State 2024 budget)
“We are currently in discussions with those with stakes in these companies to see how we can restructure the existing agreements and have the establishments come back on stream because we are a pro-business government, committed to actively supporting the private sector to massively create jobs for our people.
Finally, governor Alex otti inspired the house members and guests with new hope for progress, peace, unity, growth and development in the coming years.“Mr Speaker, Honourable Members and Ndi Abia, I invite us all to look to the future with great optimism. We are coming from a very difficult place but none of the difficulties of the past can diminish the potentials of this great land, ” he said.
“A new beginning awaits us and I request everyone to come on board as we work to rebuild and restore the glory of our fatherland,” he said.
The governor assured that he and his teams of executives will not fail to achieve the purpose of the Abia State 2024 budget, highlighting that plans and programs by state shall begin to be quickly implemented in the wake of the presentation. (Abia State 2024 budget)
“As I lay this bill before this Honourable House, may I reassure you Mr Speaker and the Honourable members that you will get all the necessary cooperation from my team as Abians look to the speedy and diligent consideration of the 2024 budget proposal,” he said.
“Mr. Speaker, Honourable members of the house, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, thank you for listening and may our good God continue to bless you all,“ the governor also added.
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