Anambra State Assembly passes 2023 budget
From Chinedu Nwafor, Abakaliki
Anambra State House of Assembly, on Tuesday, passed the 2023 Appropriation Bill of N259.9 billion.
The approval came barely 26 days after the state Governor Professor Chukwuma Soludo presented the bill to the House for approval.
The passage followed the adoption of the report of the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation during plenary in Awka.
The Deputy Chairman of the committee Hon.Nonso Okafor, who presented the report, said the capital expenditure was increased from the initial N164.2 billion to N164.4 billion based on the needs of the ministries, departments and agencies, representing 63.2 per cent of the budget.
Okafor said: “In carrying out the assignment given to the committee by this house, we organised and invited MDAs for bilateral discussions and thorough scrutiny of the 2023 Budget.
“We recommend that the budget size be retained except for little adjustments based on the needs of some ministries, department and agencies.
“That the sum of N259,938,121,905 be approved for the service of the Anambra state government for the year ending, Dec. 31, 2023, and for related purposes, ” he said.
The Speaker of the House, Hon. Uche Okafor, while commending the committee for a job well done called for a voice vote for the adoption of the report and the bill was consequently passed.
The Speaker thereafter directed the Clerk of the House, Mrs Esther Anaetoh, to send a copy of the bill to Governor Soludo for his assent.
He said: “I commend all the standing committees for carrying out their mandates as expected. We recognised the place of budget to accelerate and drive good governance in the state.
“We urge residents to continue to support Gov. Soludo’s administration,” he said.
