The Anambra State House of Assembly on Tuesday, passed the state 2023 Appropriation Bill of N259.9 billion.

The approval came more than 26 days after Gov. Chukwuma Soludo presented the bill to the House for approval.

The passage followed the adoption of the report of the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation during plenary in Awka.

Presenting the report, Mr. Nonso Okafor, the Deputy Chairman of the committee said the capital expenditure was increased from the initial N164.2 billion to N164.4 billion based on the needs of the government Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs) representing 63.2 percent of the budget.

Okafor said that the recurrent expenditure was N95.4 billion, representing 36.8 percent.

“In carrying out the assignment given to the committee by this house, we organized and invited MDAs for bilateral discussions and thorough scrutiny of the 2023 Budget.

“We recommend that the budget size be retained except for little adjustments based on the needs of some ministries, departments, and agencies.

“That the sum of N259,938,121,905 is approved for the service of the Anambra state government for the year ending, Dec. 31, 2023, and for related purposes, ” he said.

The Speaker of the House, Dr. Uche Okafor, while commending the committee for thorough scrutiny of the budget, conducted a voice vote for the adoption of the report.

The house passed the bill after a voice vote and the speaker directed the Clerk of the House, Mrs. Esther Anaetoh, to send a copy of the bill to Soludo for his assent.

“I commend all the standing committees for carrying out their mandates as expected. We recognized the place of the budget to accelerate and drive good governance in the state.

“We urge residents to continue to support Gov. Soludo’s administration,” he said.

The 2023 budget, tagged “Budget of Acceleration” was N89 billion higher than the 2022 budget of N170 billion.

The Speaker also announced that the House would hold a valedictory session on Dec. 8, for the Late Nnamdi Okafor, Majority Leader of the House who died on Aug. 24 in South Africa.