Again, Enugu allocates 33% of N971 billion 2025 budget to education

“As we must all know by now, education is both our ‘sword’ and ‘shield’ in this battle to achieve economic growth in our state and banish poverty and want among our population,” the governor said.

Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State has presented a N971 billion 2025 budget to the House of Assembly for approval.

Mr Mbah made the presentation on Tuesday at the assembly chamber in Enugu.

Entitled, ‘Budget of Exponential Growth and Inclusive Prosperity,’ the 2025 budget recorded a 86.4 per cent increase from the N521.5 revised 2024 budget presented by the governor in December last year.

The budget

During the presentation, Mr Mbah said N837.9 billion was earmarked for capital expenditures, representing 86 per cent of the total budget, while N133.1 billion was allocated to recurrent expenditures, representing only 14 per cent of the budget.

PREMIUM TIMES reports that the 2025 budget is the biggest presented by any administration so far in the state’s history.

Again Education gets 33% of the budget

In the 2024 budget, Mr Mbah allocated N134.5 billion for the education sector, which accounted for 33 per cent of the N521.5 billion budget.

In the 2025 budget, the governor allocated N320.6 billion to the education sector, representing 33.2 per cent of the total budget, which is above the 15 to 20 per cent recommended by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

He stressed that the sustained increase in the education budget was in line with his administration’s target of poverty eradication and an inclusive development model, which ensures that the state graduates to a knowledge-based economy.

“As we must all know by now, education is both our ‘sword’ and ‘shield’ in this battle to achieve economic growth in our state and banish poverty and want among our population.

“Consequently, we are maintaining the ambitious direction we charted in 2024 by voting a total of N320,609,059,000,00 for that sector. This represents 78 per cent of the social sector of the budget and 33.2% of our capital expenditure this year,” he stated.

Other sectors

Mr Mbah said, in terms of broad sectors, the economic sector got the highest allocation with N462 billion, representing 55.1 per cent of the capital expenditure, followed by the social sector with N345.7 billion, representing 41.2 per cent.

The governor announced that the 2025 budget would also focus heavily on health, road infrastructure, transport, agriculture, and the water sector.

“There can be no economic growth without quality healthcare. This is why we are spending N45,830,896,000.00 on the sector this year.

“In the area of Works and Infrastructure, we will continue our relentless advance towards our target to build or refurbish all key roads across the state by 2031. In line with this, we will spend a total of N213,120,267,000.00 in 2025,” he said.

Continuing, he said: “Food inflation is a major component of core inflation in Nigeria. Consequently, food production is critical to moderation of the currently high levels of inflation in the country.

“As a result, we will be spending up to N82,300,761,000.00 in the agricultural and agro-industrialisation sector this year.”

Plans for Enugu Air, road transport

In October 2023, the Mr Mbah-led administration indicated plans to establish a state-owned airline in Enugu State.

Speaking on his plans for the new airline, Mr Mbah said he budgeted N41 billion for the year 2025 to expand Enugu Air with the acquisition of four additional aircraft.

“In addition, we will be consummating the concession of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport as well as the construction of an international cargo terminal.

“We will also be floating a new taxi scheme in collaboration with the private sector to modernise urban and inter-urban transportation for Ndi Enugu,” he added.

IGR growth

Mr Mbah announced a growth in the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

The governor said the state’s IGR increased from N37.4 billion at the end of 2023 to N144.7 billion in September 2024, representing a whopping 286.2 per cent increase.

He said the increase was in line with his administration’s “deliberate effort to wean the state off reliance on FAAC allocations.”

“In terms of budgetary performance, the total revenue realised in the state as at October 2024 came to N459,851,309,396.47, which comes to a budget performance of 88 per cent.

“Of this amount, N178,354,494,502.47 related to Statutory Receipts, while N136,700,000,000.00 related to Capital Receipts and N144,796,814,894.00 to IGR,” Mr Mbah said.

“Additional revenues and Expenditure are still expected before the end of the year, with IGR envisaged to surpass the N200 billion mark.”

Speaker promises early passage of budget

During the budget presentation, the Speaker of the Enugu State House Assembly, Uchenna Ugwu, promised early passage of the budget by to sustain the governor’s development efforts.

“Because you have demonstrated enormous capacity; because you have exhibited enormous potential in the very fabric of our state’s economy, I want to assure you that the House of Assembly shall expeditiously consider this and give you the legal framework to continue flying high,” Mr Ugwu assured.