The Acting Governor Of Ondo State, Hon. Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa, yesterday presented a budget proposal of N384.5 billion for the 2024 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly.
Aiyedatiw, while presenting the budget tagged “Budget of Economic Resilience” to the lawmakers during a plenary sitting presided over by the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon Olamide Oladiji, said N212,014 billion was budgeted for capital expenditure and N172,518 billion for recurrent expenditure.
The 2024 budget proposal is higher than that of the total projected budget outlay for the 2023 fiscal year which was N272.7 billion.
Aiyedatiwa disclosed that the 2024 budget was prepared based on the inputs garnered during the Town Hall meetings with various stakeholders across the state, noting that the bugged was tailored towards achieving the “Redeemed” agenda of his administration which is also in tandem with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
According to him, “the current national and global economic realities point to the reason why we must consciously and programmatically re-arrange our fiscal priorities to target the growth drivers of our economy to quickly fix and reflate the economy, to keep it afloat.”
The acting governor further stated that “We are aware of the negative impacts of fuel subsidy removal and floating exchange rates on the people. All these are put into consideration while projecting for expenditure in this Budget.
“We have made a reasonable increase in the Personnel Estimates to cover the imminent wage increase for workers. We will also continue to roll out palliative measures to cushion the effects of the fuel subsidy removal.
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“The impact of climate change is another issue we have resolved to tackle headlong in the coming year. As we all noticed, the duration and intensity of rainfall relatively increased this year and produced huge run-offs and flooding in many Local Government Areas.
“All of these and more have been addressed in our expenditure projection for year 2024 as shown below: Recurrent Expenditure
Salaries and Wages – N59,211,247,665.00, Overheads – N42,172,446,600.00, Debt Servicing- N16,316,930,000.00, Grants and Contributions – N 14,547,476,300.00, Social Contribution and Social Benefits – N19,064,602,824.00, Statutory Transfers – N21,205,436,964.00 and while Capital Expenditure is Estimates -N211,014,859,647.00.”
Given the breakdown of the proposed budget for 2024, Aiyedatiwa said Administration of Justice -16,389,110,486.12 -4.3%,
Agricultural Development 31,816,008,874.01 – 8.3%,
Education 47,729,164,261.85 12.4%, Environment and Sewage Management 8,551,879,882.87 2.2% General Administration , 32,574,349,199.07 8.5%,
Health 29,809,134,375.97 7.8%, Information 2,228,802,993.29 0.6℅
Infrastructural Development 95,482,176,340.36 24.8%, Legislative Administration, 6,472,161,659.19 1.7%, Public Finance, 82,413,990,850.80, 21.4% , Regional Development 12,646,995,272.10 3.3%, Community development 14,465,344,834.76 3.8%,
Trade and Industry 3,953,880,969.61 1.0%. “
The budget presentation was witnessed by 26 State lawmakers and members of the State Executive Council including the Secretary to the State Government, Princess Oladunni Odu as well as other top politicians and government officials.