Ongoing expansion of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, the light rail project, security of lives and property and efficient traffic management are among key areas to receive priority as Lagos State 2016 budget of N662.588 billion sets rolling.
The budget has capital/recurrent expenditure of ration 58 to 42 percent.
The governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, signed the budget into law on Monday, promising that every kobo budgeted for will be utilised to deliver value to tax payers. About N542.873 billion is estimated as total revenue with the balance of N119.71 to be funded through internal and external loans, including the World Bank DPO 3 loan, which the state could not access in 2015.
“The budget will enable our government focus on the present challenges of security, traffic gridlock resolution including physical and social infrastructural developments, which have thrown up new challenges quite different from our past experience,” Ambode said.
The state, according to Mustapha Akinkunmi, the commissioner for finance, will also be approaching the bond market to raise about N43 billion to partly fund the budget, just as Olufolarin Ogunsanwo, chairman, Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue (LIRS), said the government might be bully about tax collection using the instrumentality of the law.
Akinyemi Ashade, commissioner for economic planning and budget, who gave a further breakdown of the budget at a press conference attended by majority of state executive members, said the internally generated revenue (IGR) would account for N419.826 billin of the budget, representing 77 percent of the total revenue, with the balance of N123.04 billion, representing 23 percent expected from a combination of statutory allocation and Value Added Tax (VAT).
According to Ashade, N89.9 billion of the total budget will be spent on construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of roads and public buildings. To benefit from this includes the ten-lane Lagos-Badagry road expansion, two flyovers to ease off perennial gridlock at Ajah area and Abule-Egba and Pen Cinema in Agege as well as the light-up Lagos project.
Also, about N48.9 billion will be expended on various transportation initiatives including the completion of the blue rail line and expansion of BRT corridors (Mile 12-Ojota).
The commissioner also said N86 billion would be spent on the education sector, which according to him, would cover the state government flagship programmes including A-Meal-a-Day initiative to be partly sponsored by the Federal Government, Ibile tablets for secondary schools as well as the development of the E-Curriculum initiative.
He gave the expenditure breakdown of other sectors to include, health (N46.9bn) agriculture and food security (N2bn), tourism (N2.2bn), commerce and industry (N6.2bn), environment (N27bn), pensions (N6.5bn), science and technology (N9.6bn), water (N17.6bn), housing (N25.3bn), sports development (N2.3billion), among others.
