Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State on Monday, presented N109,199,243 billion for the 2019 budget appropriation to the state House of Assembly.
Capital expenditure gets N43, 493, 343,000. 00 representing 39.8 per cent of the budget proposal while recurrent expenditure stood at N69,705,900,000.00 representing 60.2 per cent of the budget.
In the sectoral allocation, N633,000,000 million was budgeted for agriculture while N2.34 billion was for health and N5.55 billion was set aside for education.
Presenting the budget, tagged Budget of Peace, Equity and Prosperity, the governor said that his administration has implemented the previous budget of 2018 to 85 per cent, stressing that the government has taken development to the urban and rural communities.
He reeled out achievements of his administration in the last three years which include, massive rehabilitation of roads both in urban and rural areas as well as in health facilities, agriculture and education.
Ugwuanyi who said the state remains one of the most peaceful and safest states in Nigeria pointed out that his administration has invested heavily in agriculture noting that this was to ensure that no family in the state goes to bed without food.
“To ensure security of lives and property in the state, the government has procured 77 vehicles to the police and Siena buses for the neighbourhood watch to complement the security in the rural communities.
“We want to make sure that no family goes to sleep without food, this while this administration has mapped out various agricultural programs to ensure adequate food production,” he said.
He said that the government in the last three years has been paying salaries and pensions regularly adding that they set aside N1.2 billion monthly for the payment of gratuity.
In the area of health, Ugwuanyi said that the government has reconstructed and upgraded seven general hospitals in Oji-River, Awgu, Udi, Enugu Ezike, Agbani and Nsukka.
He said that his administration has procured the state of art equipment for the ESUT Teaching Hospitals, which includes; four baby incubators while accreditation for ESUT College of Medicine was secured.
He noted that the medical diagnostic centre has been completed and the 2019 budget would see to the installations of facilities at the centre.