Adeleke presents N273bn budget to rebuild ‘battered economy’

Ademola Adeleke, governor of Osun, has presented a N273.9 billion 2024 appropriation bill to the state house of assembly.

Adeleke presented the budget tagged ‘Budget of reconstruction and recovery’ on Thursday.

The budget consists of recurrent expenditure of N165.65 billion and capital expenditure of N108.25 billion.

The governor said the budget was to recover, revamp and rebuild the “battered economy” of the state, inherited by his administration.

This is the first budget to be presented by the governor since he assumed office.

Adeleke said he was presenting the budget in line with the existing laws, which stipulated that a draft budget of a state should be presented to the house of assembly for approval before the end of the year.

He, however, appealed for the speedy passage of the appropriation bill by the lawmakers.

In his remarks, Adewale Egbedun, speaker of the assembly, said the budget presentation was historical as it was the first budget being presented by the governor and the first to be deliberated upon by the 8th assembly.

Egbedun promised that the assembly would ensure that the budget was passed on time.

The lawmaker also directed the state’s ministries, agencies and departments (MDAs) to furnish the assembly with 35 copies of their budget.

Also, the speaker announced the names of the governor’s nominees into the boards of some state statutory commissions which included, the Osun Independent Electoral Commission and Osun assembly service commission.

Other nominees mentioned are for the state judicial service commission and the civil service commission.

Egbedun said all the nominees must submit 35 copies of their curriculum vitae to the clerk of the house.