President Bola Tinubu, yesterday, received the Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah who paid him a Christmas homage at his Bourdillon residence in Ikoyi, Lagos. Mbah, who spoke to journalists after the meeting, also reiterated his support for the administration’s economic reforms. He further assured that his administration would deliver on the over N300bn Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) target in the 2024 Appropriation Law of the State, which he signed on Wednesday.
Speaking to newsmen after meeting with the President, Mbah said “essentially, I came to convey warm greetings and season’s best wishes on behalf of the government and the good people of Enugu State to Mr. President.
“I also seized the opportunity to discuss, once again, with Mr. President the impact of some of the policies he has initiated on some of the things we are doing in Enugu State, particularly as it relates to the attraction of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). You know that foreign exchange (FX) unification and the removal of the fuel subsidiary have essentially meant that a number of FDI are flowing towards our direction in Enugu State”, he said.
On the state’s N521.5bn 2024 budget, the governor said “we are poised to harness the resources. Enugu has played a consequential role in the economic development of Nigeria. So, what we are simply doing is bringing her back to that preeminent position, making sure that we harness all the resources we have within Enugu and to make sure we also mobilise our domestic revenue.
“So, yes, we have proposed an ambitious budget and made ambitious revenue projections. But we are convinced that we are going to realise those revenues”, he said.
Mbah stressed the commitment of his administration to expanding the infrastructural base of the state, quality service delivery, and migration of the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to digital platforms for that purpose.
“I am sure you are aware that we have fulfilled what we promised the people in 180 days, which was to provide water to the people in all the homes in the urban areas. And for those who still don’t have, we are expanding the pipeline network to reach them.”
“We are building 260 Smart Schools across all the wards in the state. We’re building 260 Primary Healthcare Centres Type-2 across all the 260 wards. “We are migrating our manual ways of doing things in our various institutions and our various MDAs to a digital platform so we can offer an efficient service to the people of the state,” he concluded.
