The Cross River State House of Assembly has approved a N642,160,260,164.66 supplementary budget for the 2025 fiscal year.
The supplementary budget shows a variance of about N142 billion, representing a 26 per cent increase over the initial budget, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
Presenting the report, the Chairman of the Assembly’s Finance and Appropriation Committee, Mr Okon Owuna, said the addition was to accommodate several critical expenditures that were not captured in the original 2025 budget.
Owuna said the development had provided the fiscal space to introduce additional expenditures across critical sectors.
He also said that the supplementary budget introduced an upward adjustment across sectors like administration, economic, law, and justice, among others.
“The key factors necessitating the supplementary budget include new obligations and emergency spending not captured in the original budget.
“There are also recently approved strategic programmes requiring immediate financial backing and improved outlook from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), internal grants and state shares from Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).
“The budget will be financed from IGR, Aids and Grants, and FAAC,” he said.
In separate reactions, other lawmakers said that the approval of the supplementary budget was necessitated by Governor Bassey Otu’s commitment to infrastructure development in the 18 Local Government Areas of the state.
The Speaker, Mr Elvert Ayambem, remarked that the supplementary budget was for the welfare of citizens of the state.
Ayambem further said that projects in all the LGAs had been duly captured with a view to transforming the state.
What you should know
The House, on December 24, 2024, passed the 2025 Appropriation Bill, tagged “Budget of Sustainable Growth”, totaling over N538 billion.
Recently, the Cross River State Internal Revenue Service (CRIRS) revealed plans to boost the state’s monthly Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to N10 billion, beginning January 2026.
The Chairman, CRIRS, Mr Edwin Okon, said at a two-day Half-year Review Session in Calabar on Friday that the plan would take effect from January 2026.
In January, credit rating agency Fitch assigned Cross River State a ‘B-‘ Long-Term Foreign- and Local-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) and an ‘AA-(nga)’ National Long-Term Rating, noting the state’s reliance on federal transfers and its growing debt burden.
The ratings agency cited concerns over the state’s ambitious capital expenditure (CapEx) plans, exposure to foreign currency debt, and rising operating costs as key drivers of its fiscal challenges.
Also, Fitch projects that Cross River’s net adjusted debt will increase significantly, reaching approximately N880 billion by 2028. This projection accounts for the impact of a weakened naira on the state’s foreign currency debt, which constitutes 50% of its adjusted debt as of the end of 2023.
