I will not borrow to fund 2024 budget – Governor Soludo

Anambra State governor, Charles Chukwuma Soludo said, his administration will not borrow to fund the State 2024 budget contrary to reports that he was planning to borrow N120 billion.

The governor stated this in an interview with journalists at the Governor’s Lodge Amawbia, on Tuesday to mark the State’s 33-years anniversary.

Soludo’s denial was at the backdrop of speculation in some newspapers the governor was planning to borrow N120 billion from an undisclosed financial institutions to fund the 2024 budget, and that he (Soludo) had on Tuesday presented a budget of N410 billion to the State House of Assembly for consideration and approval.

He urged citizens of Anambra State and the public to disregard the report which he described as baseless.

He said: “The report is purely fake news. The current government of Anambra State under my watch has no and never planned to borrow money to fund the ongoing transformation policies in the state.

“I don’t know where this report is coming from. I will interrogate my officials about it.

“This administration under my able watch has a particular view about borrowing and we have a very narrow stringing collateral in borrowing. We can not borrow for consumption, if we want to borrow, we will borrow for bankable projects and programmes that will add value not just for today but for the unborn generation.

“In 2022, when I came on board, the State House of Assembly where we have our supplementary budget actually approved for us to borrow the sum of N100 billion and until this moment we have not borrowed a Kobo out of that.”