Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State, on Thursday, presented the 2016 budget tagged “The Peoples Budget” at the state’s House of Assembly. In his presentation, a total of N662.588bn was proposed for the year 2016. The budget is N172.898bn bigger than the 2015 budget and represents an improvement of 26% over the budgets of 2014 and 2015. With capital expenditure proposed at N383.678bn as against N278.909bn for recurrent expenditure, this gives a ratio of capital to recurrent of 58:42 in 2014 as against 51:49 in 2015.
He said the 2016 budget which was the first full budget of the present administration would promote massive investment in security, transport and traffic management, physical and social infrastructural development and enhance job creation.
Ambode pledged that his administration would not only implement the budget faithfully, but also ensure that it worked in the best interest of Lagosians. “The increase will enable our government to focus on the present challenges of security, traffic gridlock resolution – including physical and social infrastructural development, which has thrown up new challenges that are quite different from what we used to experience”, he said.
He said the intention of his government was to use the 2016 budget to strategically build new infrastructure, as well as maintain existing ones, adding that wealth and employment creation will also receive adequate attention in the course of the year.
Ambode also put the total revenue estimate for 2016 fiscal year at N542.873 billion saying the balance of N119.714 billion would be funded through deficit financing constituting 0.41 percent of the state gross domestic product (GDP) based on 2016 budget alone and a cumulative debt to GDP ratio of about 3 percent.
On the size of the budget, the he earmarked N120, 508,571,598 for General Public Services representing 18.19 percent, N28, 559,021,841 to Public Order and Safety, representing 4.31 percent, while Economic Affairs received a lion share of N211, 043,408,183 representing 31.85 percent.
In other sectors, Environment got 8.1 percent of the budget totalling N53,043,599,505, Housing and Community Amenities, got N62,713,091,867 representing 9.46 percent, Health got N64,677,679,096 representing 9.76 percent, while Recreation, Culture and Religion had N4,636,917,054 which is 0.70 percent of the budget.
Education sector also received N113, 379,337,664 representing 17.11 percent of the budget while Social Protection got N4, 025,980,116, which is 0.61 of the budget.
Governor Ambode said that due to the falling oil prices, the budget was pegged on $38 dollar per barrel saying it was in line to maintain a conservative approach in estimating the Federal allocation for 2016.
“Fiscal Federalism and according Lagos a special status will benefit the state as we implore the Federal Government to look into this as soon as possible. The Federal Government still owes Lagos State over N50 billion expended on federal roads in Lagos state. We look forward to an early refund to enable us utilise the fund on other infrastructure that require attention”, the Governor said.
Explaining some of the highlights of the Budget, Ambode said the state government would commence the A-Meal- a-Day Programme in the state Public Primary Schools next year, adding that it would be done in collaboration with the Federal Government, which will provide 60 percent of the funding, while the State Government would match it with 40 percent.
“This programme promises not only to improve the daily nutrition of our children, it will also create an economy of its own, with opportunities for job creation, income generation, poverty alleviation, and so on”.
“In in 2016 we will develop our e-Curriculum, leading to the distribution of Ibile tablets to students in our public schools. This revolution, at the secondary school level, will set a new standard in our educational system, and further enhance the knowledge of our children to enable them compete effectively with their peers in developed countries”, the Governor said.
While acknowledging that security was a major challenge that confronted the state within the first few months of his administration, Ambode said his administration had adopted a multi-faceted approach at tackling this challenge, just as he pledged to continue to support the security agencies in 2016.
On road infrastructure, he said that one of the assignments that his administration had embarked upon was to regularly inspect the state of the roads to ascertain their conditions and ensure that they were motorable, assuring that while ongoing projects would be given priority in the course of the year, new roads would be constructed across the length and breadth of the state.
