Soludo: Changing Gears for Anambra’s Progress with 2025 Budget

Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo has presented 2025 budget estimate to the State House of Assembly for necessary scrutiny and evential passage. David-Chyddy Eleke looks at the budget size and what the Governor sets out to achieve with it.

Last week, Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State approached the  State House of Assembly with the budget estimate for the year 2025. He announced in his speech the size of the budget, which totaled about N607billion. This is against the 2024 budgets which stood at N410billion, and represents a 48.0% increase.

Though this would be the third budget estimate the governor will be submitting before the house of assembly, it is important to note that the 2025 budget is significant because it’s an election year budget, where Soludo would be expected to be reconnecting for the position of governor to retain his office. This of course is a well known fact that the project is one that involves heavy financial implications.

Presenting the budget proposal before the 30-member house of assembly,  Soludo took time to analyze the performance of the 2024 budget, what has been achieved so far, and what his government hopes to achieve with the new budget for next year when passed into law.

He said: “Let me put on record that this honorable Assembly has been a very strong and progressive partner in our drive to lay solid foundations for Anambra as a livable and prosperous smart mega city. History will indeed be kind to this 8th Assembly for your commitment, hard work, and productivity.

“On November 21, 2023, I was here to present the 2024 Anambra State Budget entitled “Changing Gears: The Transformation Agenda Begins”, which you passed into law. We presented a modest budget of N410 billion for the fiscal year 2024, compared to N259 billion for 2023, which reflects an increase of approximately 57.8%. Recurrent expenditure accounted for N96.2 billion (23.46%), while capital expenditure totaled N313.9 billion (76.54%). The budget deficit was estimated at N120.8 billion.

“As you are aware, the general macroeconomic conditions under which we had to implement the 2024 budget have been challenging, especially with the immediate consequences of the courageous removal of fuel subsidy and the unification of the exchange rates. Inflation has continued in double digits, with significant pressures on costs of living and cost of governance. Our IGR has been grossly underperforming and as of October 2024, budget performance stood at about 50% pro rata, and we still have resisted the temptation to borrow.

“Despite the macroeconomic challenges, we have remained focused on the ball—delivering on all the five fingers of the Solution Agenda: Security, Law & Order; Infrastructure and Economic Transformation; Human Capital and Social Agenda; Governance and Value System; and Environment. We are working hard, rejigging and strengthening our security architecture, and in some days and weeks to come, Ndi Anambra will fully experience our zero tolerance to criminality. Together as a people, we must bond together to defeat the criminals among us.”

He said working with the 2024 budget, his government was able to extend its free education policy up to Senior Secondary School Year 3 (SS3) and recruited an additional 3,115 teachers, bringing the total number of teachers recruited to 8,115.

Soludo said there can be no school of any sort—smart or otherwise – without qualitative teachers, and his government has rightly prioritized the competitive recruitment of the best teachers in schools.

According to him: “We equipped 60 secondary school laboratories with the required STEM equipment. Furthermore, we have increased the operational budgets for both primary and secondary schools to ensure they can deliver the quality education we promised, among other initiatives.

“In the health sector, we continue to offer free antenatal and delivery services for pregnant women in the state with over 70,000 women as beneficiaries. The construction/modernization and equipment of 326 primary health centres are at advanced stages.

“A historic Trauma Centre is being constructed at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital. The Okpoko General Hospital has been completed and fully operational, and four other new general hospitals will soon be completed. As a proactive government, we have initiated the construction of the Coordinated Wholesale Centre at Oba, and the jinx will soon be broken. This is a crucial step towards eliminating the issues associated with open and unregulated drug markets in the state. To ensure our hospitals are properly equipped, we have begun renovating them and equipping primary healthcare facilities with the necessary solar power, boreholes, and medical equipment. Additionally, we have started the construction of a new nursing school in the state.”

The governor mentioned several other projects executed by his government through the 2024 budget, including the One Youth, Two Skills training program, the Solution Innovation District (SID) training of 20,000 youths, the endorsement of the new minimum wage, tax-free cash award of N10,000 per month to all pensioners in the state, the state’s palm and coconut revolution, and the construction of over 540 kilometers of roads, among several other projects.

His words: “Our vision to turn Anambra into a destination rather than a departure lounge is fully on course. The Solution Fun City, primed to be the biggest in West Africa, is quickly becoming a dream come true and will be inaugurated in some weeks to come. Pilling work is on steroids for the 10-storey Marriott Hotel in Awka, while construction will soon begin in the 20 Hectare Awka City Leisure and Entertainment Park. Work is ongoing around Agulu Lake, and an international consultant will soon finalize the masterplans for the four Anambra’s historic tourist sites. Anambra is indeed one big construction site and Awka is gradually looking like a state capital. The list is long.”

For the year 2025, Soludo expressed optimism that the budget proposals will further help the state remain consistent in acceleration and in a steadfast execution mode. He said even though 2025 would be a governorship election year in Anambra State, he will remain focused and ensure delivery of projects.

According to him: “Yes, while the politicians will be focusing on politics, we will be intensely and intentionally focusing 100% on the execution of our multi-faceted agenda with a deadline. Consequently, we have titled this budget: “Changing Gears 2.0” with emphasis on acceleration and execution.”

Analyzing the budget, Soludo said: “The proposed budget size is N606,991,849,118 for the fiscal year 2025. Compared to the 2024 budget of N410,132,225,272, this represents a 48.0% increase. Recurrent expenditures account for N139.5 billion (YoY growth of 45.0%), while capital expenditure is N467.5 billion (YoY growth of 48.9%). The Capital Budget constitutes 77% of the total budget size, while recurrent expenditures account for 23% (the same ratios as for the 2024 budget). The budget deficit is estimated at N148.3 billion (24% of the budget compared to 30% in the 2024 budget).

“As in the 2024 budget, the deficit is expected to be funded through revenue growth or borrowing from financial institutions. So far in both 2023 and 2024, we did not borrow to finance budget deficits. Depending on the execution in 2025, we may still not borrow to fund the deficit.  Relative to 2024, several key sectors are seeing significant increases: the administrative sector by 45.5%; the Economic sector by 40.1%; the Judiciary sector by 51.3%; the social sector by 82.7%; Education by 101.4%; Health by 57.1%; and Infrastructure investment by 38.9%.”

He went on to reel out several projects that are expected to be embarked upon, and ongoing ones that the budget can help drive to conclusion. “We are building upon the iconic projects initiated in 2024 while introducing new ones. Infrastructure and economic transformation as well as Human Capital Development remain the kernel of this administration, and, significantly, at least 70% of the budget is allocated to these sectors.

“We are progressing the development of three new cities: Awka 2.0, Onitsha 2.0, and a new Industrial City. The Anambra Mixed-Use Industrial City Master Plan and the railway master plan/feasibility study have been completed. Afreximbank and AFDB remain committed to supporting the development of the Industrial City. We will continue to enhance the Ease of Doing Business in Anambra to ensure the State becomes the preferred destination for investors. We recently concluded the second edition of the Anambra Investment Summit (ANinvest 2.0), where 10 elite companies signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs).”

Soludo said he will not give any excuses or complaints for work not done as he duly applied for the job and was interviewed, found worthy and hired by the people of Anambra state, as such he must deliver dividends of democracy to the people in spite of all the constraints. The governor is optimistic that by the time he concluded his plans for the state, it would become an investment destination rather than a place where people will be struggling to leave to other places for their business to thrive.

Some of the plans, he said, include: equipment to enhance night landing capabilities at Chinua Achebe International Airport, regulatory framework to encourage private sector investment in the Anambra Electricity Market, under the National Electricity Amendment Act of 2023, focus on human capital, transforming 22 secondary schools into smart schools (with many more to follow in the new year), among others.

The budget has attracted commendation from key government officials, in the hope that it would help transform Anambra into what the people desire to have. The Deputy Speaker of the Anambra state House of Assembly, Hon Chukwuma Okoye in his reaction said the 2025 budget estimate presented before the lawmakers touched every facet of development in the state.

“With this budget and the collective effort of Ndi Anambra, we are well on the way of achieving remarkable milestone of our state. I urge everybody to keep supporting the vision of the governor and pray that Anambra will succeed.”

State Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Chiamaka Nnake in her reaction said, “We don’t just prepare budget for preparation sake, but we know what we set out to achieve in the 2025 budget, and these are the things we have listed to you. We have also prioritized security, even though I may not be able to disclose to you all that we are doing in that area, but a lot is currently going on.”