N109bn 2019 Enugu State budget scales second reading

THE 2019 appropriation of more than N109 billion on Tuesday scaled through a second reading at the plenary of the Enugu State House of Assembly.

The Leader of the House, Mr Ikechukwu Ezeugwu, said that the bill was to service Enugu State of Nigeria for the year ending Dec. 31, 2019, and for other related matters.

Ezeugwu moved a motion that the Assembly should stand down order 64 of its standing order to enable them to go straight to the second reading, while Mrs Onyinye Ugwu, the Deputy Leader seconded the motion.

He said that Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State was at the Assembly chambers on Dec. 17, 2018, to present the budget which was tagged “The Budget of Peace”.

The leader said that the 2019 budget showed a 5.4 per cent increase from what they had last year which is N103.5 billion.

He commended the government for performing more than the slim resources could afford, adding that if the budget was passed that a lot of good works would equally commence in the 17 council areas of the state.

Ezeugwu explained that 2.3 billion was allocated to the Ministry of Health, adding that some of the money would go to Enugu State Diagnosis Centre for completion of the ongoing project.

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“In the education sector, N1 billion was allocated to secondary schools to enable them to complete the supply of computers and ICT equipment in the remaining schools.

“In rural development, N10m was allocated to every community to enable them to embark on a project of their choice to ease their sufferings,” he said.

He urged the members to give the bill accelerated hearing to enable the government to continue with the good work it was doing.

Contributing, the member representing Aninri Constituency, Chief Mathias Ekweremadu, challenged his colleagues to immediately pass the bill to enable the government to continue with road construction projects, especially this dry season.

Ekweremadu said the Assembly had gone through a due process to ensure that all the committees’ work was done properly before the second reading.

In a related development, the Speaker of the Assembly, Chief Edward Ubosi, thanked his colleagues for their contributions and referred the bill to various committees to conclude their defence and report back to House Committee on Rules and Business on or before two days.