Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah on Tuesday revealed that the state-owned airline will be launched in a matter of weeks to transport residents of the state coming into the state for the Christmas and end of the year activities.

Governor Mbah unveiled this on Tuesday in Enugu when he laid the N971,84,000,000 budget proposal for the 2025 fiscal before the State House of Assembly.

"Enugu Airline will be launched a few weeks' time so that our brothers coming for Christmas will fly by our own Airline," he said.

The budget figure is against the N521,556,386,000 budgeted in 2024.

Speaking during the presentation ceremony at the Assembly Complex, Governor Mbah stated that the appropriation bill tagged: "Budget of Exponential Growth and Inclusive Prosperity," will ensure development in every nook and cranny of the state.

Mbah said that the desired envisaged growth will be achieved by growing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

"Our vision to grow our GDP is patently achievable. No citizen of this state need suffer poverty or penury. No segment of the state will be left out," he said.

The governor disclosed that out of the proposed budget, Capital Expenditure will gulp N837,944,000,000.00 while N133,140,000,000.00 is budgeted as Recurrent Expenditure.

Out of the capital expenditure, the Recurrent Capital Expenditure will be N559,39,000,000.00.

Mbah announced that N692,179,000,000.00 revenue is expected to be generated from internally generated revenue (IGR), Value Added Tax (VAT) and grants.

The governor projected that the state will generate N74,924,000,000.00 from VAT alone, he projected N144,796,814,894.00 from IGR.

Governor Mbah added that his administration has high premium on education which he described as the fulcrum of development.

According to Mbah, the sum of N320,609,590,000.00 is earmarked for education in the 2025 budget proposal.

Mbah further said over N213,120,267,000 has been budgeted to be spent on roads and other infrastructure in the budget.