Rivers Executive Council Approves N800.4bn 2024 Renewed Hope Budget

Harboursandport.com: Rivers State - The Rivers State Executive Council has approved an estimated N800.4 billion to be the 2024 appropriation bill for the state.

The Budget which was approved at the 5th SEC meeting of the state, yesterday, presided over by the Governor of the state, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, is Christened, "Budget of Renewed Hope, Consolidation and Continuity".

The SEC had after the lawmakers in the State House of Assembly, loyal to the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike, defected to the All Progressives Congress, APC, which is in opposition in the state, convened a crucial meeting.

The meeting was attended by all the Commissioners and some heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the state were in attendance.

Addressing pressmen after the approval, the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Joseph Johnson, said SEC approved the Medium Term Expenditure Framework in line with an act of the Rivers State House of Assembly Law No. 8, of 2010.

Johnson said: "Council met today at the 5th Council meeting of the State Executive Council, and we deliberated on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, which is usually a precursor for discussing the Budget.

"It is an act of the Rivers State House of Assembly law no 8, of 2010. It makes provision for preparation and that document of 86 pages was also presented for consideration which has the budget estimate.

"The council deliberated on the budget so presented by the Commissioner for Finance and concluded that it was a well thought out document. The budget for 2024 is N800 billion. It was N500, billion in 2023 and we did N200 billion supplement budget.

"This budget is tagged the budget of Renewed Hope, Consolidation and Continuity. It has N400,000,000,000.00 as Capital  Expenditure, and N321billion as recurrent. N21,000,000,000.00 reserved.

He said infrastructure takes the lead with the estimate of over N130,000,000,000.00 followed by education and healthcare.

Johnson said: "Infrastructure is taking the lead with about N130,000,000,000 of the budget, followed by Education, Health and security. These are the main focus of this budget 

However, the Secretary to the State Government, Tammy Danagogo, said the projections and fundamentals of the proposal were thoroughly scrutinized by the Council, adding that the budget awaits approval by the State House of Assembly.

He said: "Details of the fundamental and projections were thoroughly discussed before we arrived at the approval of N800,392,485,433,00. Which we believe if gets to the state house of Assembly the public will be made to see and understand all the projections and fundamentals.

"The essence of the budget is to give the people of Rivers State the renewed hope and to ensure that there is a consolidation and continuity. Particularly, human Capital development, Security, Investment Drive in the state and so on."