Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly has passed a bill to appropriate the sum of N695 billion as a supplementary budget for the 2025 fiscal year, as requested by Governor Umo Eno.
The passage of the bill, LEADERSHIP learnt, followed the adoption of the report of the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation read on the floor of the House during the plenary session presided over by the speaker, Hon. Udeme Otong.
The governor sent the request to the 26-member Assembly, seeking their nod for the augmentation of the original appropriation to address key challenges of completing ongoing projects and other exigencies.
The committee chairman, Hon. Itorobong Etim, explained that the 2025 supplementary budget would be funded from several sources, including statutory revenue, internally generated revenue, derivation revenue, 13 per cent derivation revenue arrears, signature bonus, exchange gain, and value added tax, among others.
“In summary, with the supplementary budget of N695 billion made up of N125.664 billion for recurrent services and N569.335 billion for capital expenditure, the revised budget size stands at N1,650 trillion, made up of N425.664 billion for recurrent services and N1.224 billion for capital expenditure”, she explained.
The House had, in December 2024, passed N955 billion as the appropriation for the 2025 fiscal year.
“The supplementary budget will enhance ongoing projects and programmes across critical sectors such as education, healthcare, infrastructure, sports, and other developmental projects,” the lawmaker noted.
Also at plenary, the House approved the adjustments of the projections in the current 2025 –2027 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) currently in operation, following a report of the House Committee on Economic Planning and Development.
The revised MTEF provision now stands at N1.700 trillion as against the approved provision of N980 billion
The committee chairman, Hon. Nsidibe Akata, who is the deputy leader of the Assembly, stated that his committee observed significant changes in the fiscal indicators used for forecasting the approved 2025–2027 MTEF, which have positive impacts on the state revenue.
Akata noted that the approved MTEF figures for the 2025 fiscal year on revenue were N980 billion, adding that “between January and July, the actual collection is N1.115 trillion, showing a surplus balance.”
Meanwhile, the House has adjourned plenary to reconvene on Tuesday, October 14, 2024.
