Abia Gov Otti Proposes N1.016 trn Budget For 2026

Abia State governor, Alex Otti, has proposed a budget of N1,016,228,072,651.99 for the 2026 fiscal year. It is christened “Budget of Acceleration and New Possibilities.”

Otti presented the document yesterday on the floor of the state House of Assembly in Umuahia, the state capital, saying the figure represents a 13% increase from the 2025 Budget of N750.2billion.

He said: “The increase captures the scale of our drive for the rapid socioeconomic growth and sustained development of the state through investments in infrastructure. social services, and security and similar outlays.

“In consistency with the standard that had been set since the presentation of our first budget proposal 2 years ago, we shall commit 80 and 20 percent of the outlay to capital and recurrent expenditures respectively.”

While reviewing the 2025 Budget, he recorded the performance very high in infrastructure, health, education, security, agriculture, power, sports and youths development, and debt liquidation among others.

“Mr Speaker, honourable members, fellow Abians, even with the list of worthwhile achievements already presented, I would be the first to acknowledge that we have still not reached the Uhuru moment.

‎”A few lessons have been learnt from this. We shall continue to make improvements that reflect our new insights on the broad structure of public sector governance.

‎”We shall at the end of this quarter, publish a performance report for 2025. At any rate, what I can announce from this podium this minute is that we are seeing a progressive rise in performance.”

‎He expressed gratitude to the speaker and the members for permitting him to share his vision for the coming year with them and millions of residents of the state.

‎”I shall now proceed to lay the draft of the 2026 Budget before you for careful consideration and passage in fulfilment of the obligation we collectively owe the people who have entrusted us with the sacred responsibility of leadership.”

‎Responding, the speaker of the House, Emmanuel Emeruwa described the event as one of the biggest moments of the House, expressing delight with the details of the estimate.

‎He assured that the House would not only scrutinize every aspect of it, but would also handle it with dispatch in line with the ongoing transformations in the state under Otti.

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