Lucky Aiyedatiwa, the acting governor of Ondo State, submitted a budget proposal of N384.533 billion for the 2024 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly on Thursday.
Aiyedatiwa stated that the budget, named ‘Budget of Economic Resilience,’ was formulated based on collaborative contributions and inputs from stakeholders.
He said that the capital expenditure would gulp over N212,015 billion while N172,518 billion was allocated to recurrent expenditure.
He mentioned that the budget’s recurrent expenditure projection includes N59,211,247,665.00 for salaries and wages, along with N42,172,446,600.00 earmarked for overheads.
His statement also highlighted a state debt servicing projection of N16,316,930,000.00, with an accompanying allocation of N14,547,476,300.00 for grants and contributions.
Aiyedatiwa stated that N19,064,602,824.00 would be allocated to social contributions and social benefits, while N21,205,436,964.00 is earmarked for statutory transfers.
The acting governor outlined the government’s anticipated earnings, including N45,367,453,580.00 from statutory allocation, N33,039,332,950.00 from Internally Generated Revenue, and N30,301,829,040.00 from value-added tax
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He said that infrastructural development would take the highest percentage of 24.8 per cent followed by public finance with 21.4 per cent while the Information Sector would have the least budgetary allocation of 0.6 per cent.
On his part, Speaker of the Assembly, Olamide Oladiji, commended the acting governor for the presentation of the budget, saying that the event was in tandem with the 1999 Constitution as amended.
Oladiji said that the budget should be of interest to all the people of the state and urged the lawmakers to do justice to the fiscal bill.
He expressed his gratitude to President Bola Tinubu, the national leadership of APC and all stakeholders in the state for their concern and commitment towards the peaceful resolution of the political crisis which rocked the state.
The bill was sent to the Committee of Finance and Appropriation after it sailed through the Second Reading for proper legislative scrutiny.
