By Blessing Otobong-Gabriel
The Chairman, Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC, Christopher Zakka Maikalangu has on Tuesday presented a budget of N25.6 billion for 2025, tagged as “Sustainable Development.”
According to the chairman, “this move aims at enhancing the well-being and welfare of AMAC residents while fostering sustainable development.
Maikalangu noted that In preparing the 2025 budget, he carefully adopt Zero-Based Budgeting method to enable Departments to justify their expenditure for the new Fiscal year with a view to eliminating unnecessary and wasteful expenditure.
According to him, “This approach is duly articulated to rhyme with the council policy thrust in providing quality education, healthcare, pursue aggressive grassroot development, total empowerment and consolidation in the ongoing projects.
“The budget is expected to focus on infrastructure development, including roads, water, and electrification projects. The council has also begun a new development plan, which includes assessing and capturing property within the council for equity allocation of resources in the 2025 budget”, he said.
He informed that this initiative is crucial for making informed decisions about infrastructure, schools, police posts, and other public amenities. The assessment will encompass all 12 wards in AMAC and is expected to be conducted fairly and transparently by an external body.
He also noted that since the inception of this administration, “we have been able to execute unprecedented projects across the twelve wards of the Council despite some distraction from all sides. We were able to make progresses by completing several capital projects, and hope to complete the on-going ones.
“The construction of roads with street lights, drilling and reticulation of solar powered boreholes, installation of transformers, construction and renovation of primary school and primary health centers, provision of agricultural inputs, empowerment of women and youth and lots more are part of the things we are doing to satisfy the yearning of our electorates”.
“With our commitment to ensure the twelve wards of the Council are equitably serviced with our vision, we have allocated over half of the 2025 budget to capital project with special focus on completing the on-going projects”.
Speaking, Speaker of Abuja Municipal Area Council, Mathew Yare said he is pleased to receive the 2025 budget proposal from AMAC Chairman, while commending his efforts in preparing a budget that prioritizes the needs of our people.
“We will work diligently to fast-track the implementation of this budget, ensuring that it benefits the residents of our council. Our focus will be on projects that promote sustainable development and improve the lives of our citizens”.
He assured that as the Speaker of the council along with councilors will thoroughly review the budget and make necessary adjustments to ensure its effective implementation, saying their goals is to support the Chairman in executing projects across the twelve wards in AMAC, and we are committed to making this a reality.
