Mombasa County has announced a series of projects designed to raise the profile of the city in the next financial year.

Among the projects is a Sh1 billion construction initiative to develop road walkways as part of a beautification facelift venture, which will include installing street lights to enhance night-time security.

Governor Hassan Joho’s office says the county government has also commissioned construction of eight model Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) centres across the county each at a cost of Sh27 million.

“We are investing in start-of-the-art ECDE centres complete with learning facilities to promote education,” said county secretary Hamisi Mwaguya.

But the largest amount of money in the next financial year has been reserved for the health sector — the county plans to build 10 modern hospitals with a capacity of 800 beds.

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It is estimated that the health sector will take up about 26 per cent of the budget.

New hospitals in sub-counties outside the island — each costing Sh55 million —will help decongest Coast General Hospital, the main referral health institution within the six coastal counties.

The county says Sh4 billion will account for the wage bill in the next financial year, slightly under half the county’s Sh8.2 billion budget.

The county was allocated Sh9.9 billion in the current financial year.

Projections contained in the fiscal strategic paper that were passed by the county assembly last week, indicate that the county government expects to earn Sh5.163 billion in local revenues.

Mombasa county government collected Sh1.4 billion in the 2012/2013 financial year, Sh1.7 billion in 2013/2014 and Sh2 billion in the current financial year.

The recurrent expenditures will be reduced by Sh1.1 billion to Sh5.6 billion from Sh6.7 billion in 2014/2015.

In the next financial year, 31 per cent of the county government budget is earmarked for development as required by the Public Finance Management Act, 2012. The development expenditure is projected at Sh2.6 billion.