By Itam Ofor
The Cross River State House of Assembly has passed the 2024 Appropriation Bill of N296,985,631,978.01 into law.
The State Governor, Senator Prince Bassey Otu had on October 26, 2024 presented the budget estimates of N250,564,235,077.05 christened, “The People’s First Budget” to the Assembly for consideration and passage.
The passage of the bill followed, amongst other things, the presentation of the report of the Committee on Finance and Appropriation by its Chairman, Hon Cyril Omini(Yakurr 1).
Omini commended Governor Otu for his adherence to the provision of the State Public Finance Management Law which provides that the Governor shall not later than the last working day in the month of October of each year, cause to be prepared and laid before the Assembly, the annual estimates of revenue and expenditure of the State for the new financial year.
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Earlier, the Committee had an interface with various Ministries, Departments and Agencies for the defence of their various budget estimates before presenting it’s report to the House.
Announcing the passage, the Speaker, Rt Hon Elvert Ayambem expressed appreciation to the members of the Finance and Appropriation Committee as well as other Lawmakers for their commitment and dedication towards the expeditious passage of the budget.
Sectoral Allocation of the 2024 budget is as follows; Economic, 104,986,870,898.59, General Administration,95,815,641,732.59, Social, 86,973,489,533.02 while Justice and Regional sectors were allocated 7,947,139,687.33 and 1,262,390,126.53 respectively.
CONVERSEER will be publishing the budget bit by bit.