Budget Speech: Changing Gears 2.0
Chukwuma Charles SOLUDO, CFR
Governor, Anambra State
Being A Speech at the Presentation of the Draft Anambra State Budget Proposals for 2025 to the Anambra State House of Assembly; Awka: 19th November 2025
Protocol
Mr. Speaker, Honorable Members, it gives me great pleasure to be here again to perform one of our constitutional duties, namely, to present the draft 2025 budget proposals for your kind consideration. 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. I recall specifically that on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, I signed into law 11 landmark bills passed by this 8th Assembly, covering a wide range of issues for the transformation of Anambra State. I must also not forget the landmark Local Government Administration Law passed by this House which has laid the foundation for a transparent, accountable, developmental, and sustainable local government system in Anambra State. Ndi Anambra appreciate your progressivism.
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.
We have extended our 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. There can be no school of any sort—smart or otherwise without qualitative teachers, and we have rightly prioritized the competitive recruitment of the best teachers for our schools. 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.
Building the capacity and empowering our youth to shape their own future remains our priority through the One Youth, Two Skills training program. The initial 5,000 graduates of the program are now entrepreneurs, and we have launched the second phase of training for 8,700 young people in the state across various skills, setting aside N2.5 billion Naira to support their start-up capital upon successful completion of their training. The Solution Innovation District (SID) has trained 20,000 youths in four major tech skills and recently graduated 1,500 youths in its Code Anambra Program. We are intentionally building the human capital of the future. We are constructing the iconic SID building—our very own Silicon Valley—where the next generation of tech giants will be nurtured.
In response to the ongoing economic hardship and in compliance with the Minimum Wage Law, our administration was one of the first states to announce and implement the new minimum wage. We have gone above and beyond by ensuring that the lowest-paid worker in the state receives a minimum take-home of N70,000 net, not gross. Additionally, as a government founded on the manifesto of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) with a progressive ideal to “leave no one behind”, we have compassionately made a tax-free cash award of N10,000 per month to all pensioners in the state. This government prioritizes the welfare of workers and our pensioners.
Our palm and coconut revolution, along with our “Farm-to-Feed” programs, is in full swing. This year, in addition to distributing over one million palm and coconut seedlings to 130,000 households in the second phase of our initiative, we have also expanded our efforts to include some staple crops that are at risk of extinction. These include the distribution of 200,000 Ukwa seedlings, 50,000 Akilu seedlings, 50,000 Oji Igbo seedlings, and 40,000 pawpaw seedlings. Our goal is to distribute 10 million of these economically beneficial trees to communities and households over the next six years. This initiative serves as one of our key strategies in the sustainable fight against poverty and engineering a new agro-allied industrial revolution of the Dr. M.I. Okpara style.
Over 540 kilometers of roads are under construction, with approximately 310 kilometers already asphalted in 30 months, and with a quality that Anambra has not seen before. The Ekwulobia flyover and bus terminal are nearing completion. The dualization of the 34-kilometre federal highway from Amawbia through Agulu, Ekwulobia and Uga to the Imo State border as well as the dualization of 36 kilometres from Nwagu Agulu-Nnobi- Nnewi, Ozubulu to Okija linking to the Onitsha-Owerri highway is a game changer. These projects signal our bigger agenda to fundamentally transform our transport infrastructure as all Trunk A roads are planned for dualization, in addition to our Rail transport Masterplan. The construction of the link bridge at Aroma, connecting the two parts of Awka. We have broken the 33-year-old jinx of not having a befitting Government House and Governor’s Lodge in Awka: we expect to move within a few weeks. For the first time in decades, urban and rural water schemes are back!
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 commissioned 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.
