The Kogi State House of Assembly has enacted the 2025 Appropriation Bill, amounting to ₦582,404,119,489.
This budget was approved following the endorsement of the report from the House Standing Committee on Appropriation, Budget Monitoring, and Economic Planning.
During the detailed examination by the supply committee, the Speaker, Aliyu Umar Yusuf, indicated that the bill authorizes a recurrent expenditure exceeding ₦281,153,215,687 billion Naira, while the capital expenditure is authorized at over ₦301,280,903,802 billion Naira.
The Speaker noted that the bill outlines the allocation of funds to various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, with an effective date of January 1, 2025, and concluding on December 31, 2025.
Yusuf expressed gratitude to the lawmakers for fulfilling their essential duty to address the budget.
It is noteworthy that Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo presented the Kogi State 2025 appropriation bill, totalling ₦582,404,119,489, for the Assembly’s approval on December 3, 2024.
Meanwhile, a former presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo, has characterized President Bola Tinubu’s economic team as disorganized and lacking fundamental economic understanding.
Addressing the present economic challenges in the country, Adebayo hopes that the 2025 budget by President Tinubu works.
He, however, expressed that the current administration under President Bola Tinubu is afflicted by economic ignorance.
He expressed his hope for a brighter future for Nigeria but emphasized that it is not a positive sign when the finance minister considers a day of borrowing in London to be favourable.
Adebayo criticized the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, for asserting that the economy is performing well despite significant external borrowing.
The politician questioned how it could be deemed a good day when Nigeria seeks foreign investments in the capital market based on surplus production.
He noted that no previous minister would have claimed that a day of borrowing was a good day.
When informed about other advanced countries like America that also borrow, Adebayo said: “America borrows from within. You borrow from your own currency. I am not quarrelling with them, borrowing from the currency they issued. When you are borrowing Euro bonds, borrowing currency from other people in other capitals of the world, it’s a sign of crisis.
“Yes, you can do it, but you don’t say it’s a good day for you. If you are anaemic and your neighbour comes to donate blood to you, you should be grateful, but you don’t say that’s the best day of your life because you are not supposed to be anaemic in the first place.
“They need to run the economy in such a way that we can generate capital for ourselves. Fundamentally, I think they are uncoordinated. Even though he is supposed to be the coordinator of the economy, he is not coordinated.
“The thinking isn’t coordinated, but if they coordinate well and work with us as a population, we should be able to generate wealth for the country.”