Fubara presents N1.1trn 2025 budget to 4-member Rivers Assembly

Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara has presented the N1.1 trillion 2025 budget to the four-member State House of Assembly.

Fubara presented the 2025 budget tagged the “Budget of Inclusive Growth and Development” to the four lawmakers on Monday, December 30, 2024.

N462,254,153,418 was allocated to recurrent expenditure and N678,088,433,692 for capital projects. This brings the total appropriation to N1,188,962,739,932.

Speaking, Fubara said Rivers State has recorded unprecedented investments and significant impact in road infrastructure, healthcare, education, and security.

Fubara added that the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of Rivers State in 2024 would exceed N300 billion by the end of the year, adding that the growth was achieved without introducing new taxes.

The governor attributed the success to improved domestic resource mobilisation.

He said: “We are expecting the internally generated revenue for 2024 to close at over N300 billion by the end of December 2024, which is over N100 billion more than the total receipts for 2023.

“Mr Speaker, it is worthy of note that this is the first time the state government would record a historic N100 billion increase in IGR in a succeeding year.

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“Most interestingly, the phenomenal increase was realised without raising or imposing new taxes, which underscores the success of our administration’s commitment to enhancing domestic resource mobilisation as the primary source for funding the government’s expenditures and the measures we have put in place to drive this vision.

“The organic increases in our internally generated revenue also show that the state’s domestic economy is on the right path to real and sustainable growth and that it is only a matter of time before we realise our abiding drive for economic self-reliance and sustainability.

“Furthermore, we funded our expenditures and met all our debt repayment obligations for fiscal year 2024 without taking any new loans as a deliberate strategy to reduce deficit financing in line with our commitment to prudent management of available public funds to ensure real and sustainable economic growth and development.

“Mr Speaker, on the expenditure side, the good news is that the 2024 recurrent budget was fully funded, thereby recording a 100 per cent implementation.”

Fubara had, on December 13, 2023, presented a budget of N800 billion for 2024 to a five-man Rivers State House of Assembly for approval.

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He presented the budget after the Rivers State Government demolished the Assembly complex in Port Harcourt, the state capital.

The governor has since been in a rift with his predecessor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, which led to a division in the House.

The Star