Cros River State Governor, Senator Bassey Otu, has signed the 2024 budget, christened ‘Peoples First’ Budget of N296, 985, 631, 978, 1 into law.
Otu signed the 2024 budget yesterday at the temporary Governor’s Office in Calabar, and the economic sector top up with N104, 986, 870, 898.59 billion.

Recall that the governor had presented the budget to the State House of Assembly on October 26, 2023, proposing a budget size of N250 billion with N154 billion as capital expenditure and N96 billion for recurrent expenditure.

This was, however, increased by the House of Assembly by N46 billion to N296 billion. The new budget bucket has capital expenditure of N180 billion and recurrent expenditure of N116 billion.

Speaking at the budget signing, Governor Otu said, “the increase is predicated on the need to provide adequate financial support to our people living with disabilities which I requested for, after laying the Budget proposal before the State House of Assembly.

“The increase in the budget allocation for this community is not just a necessity but a moral imperative: to erase social imbalance of this special demographics as they are a vulnerable group. They require specialised care, adaptive equipment, and access to resources that accommodate their unique needs.”