The Cross River State House of Assembly, on Tuesday, approved the sum of N642 billion as the 2025 Supplementary Budget.

New Telegraph recalls that the Assembly had passed the 2025 Appropriation bill on December 24, 2024, with an approved budget size of N538bn tagged “Budget of Sustainable Growth”.

However, the supplementary budget, therefore, shows a variance of  26% increase over the originally approved budget.

Speaking on the disparity, the lawmakers said the approval of the supplementary budget was necessitated by Governor Bassey Otu’s commitment to the infrastructural development of the 18 Local Government Areas of the State.

The Chairman of the Assembly’s Finance and Appropriation Committee, Okon Owuna, who presented the report, noted that the supplementary budget became necessary to accommodate several critical expenditures that were not originally captured in the 2025 budget.

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Owuna informed the House that the supplementary budget introduced an upward adjustment across sectors like Administration, Economic, Law and Justice, Regional and Social, adding that the budget will be financed from IGR, Aids and Grants and Federal Account Allocation Committee.

Owuna also commended the State Government for adhering to the Constitution, stressing that, “It is with great joy that we observed that the Senator Bassey Edet Otu-led administration has brought us to the landscape of passing a supplementary budget as contemplated by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as altered).

Owuna said, “The key factors necessitating the supplementary budget include new obligations and emergency spending not captured in the original budget, recently approved strategic programmes requiring immediate financial backing and improved outlook from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), internal grants and allocations from FAAC.

“These developments have provided the fiscal space to introduce additional expenditure across critical sectors.

“In the past, the House was faced with the downward review of each year’s budget, resulting in amendment of the Appropriation Law instead of passing a Supplementary Appropriation Law.”