Ambode presents record N1trn budget — N254bn less than Cross Rivers’

Akinwumi Ambode, governor of Lagos state, has presented the 2018 budget before the state house of assembly.

The N1.046 trillion budget is N254 billion less than Cross Rivers’ 2018 budget. The south-south state estimated N1.3 trillion; the highest by any Nigerian state.

Tagged budget of progress and development, it has a capital expenditure of N699 billion and a recurrent expenditure of N347billion.

The capital to recurrent ratio of the budget stood at 67:33.

“The budget will be used to consolidate on infrastructure, education, transportation/traffic management, security and health, with an added emphasis on mandatory capacity building for civil servants, all teachers in public secondary/primary schools, officers in the health service sector and women and youth empowerment,” Ambode said.

He said that the estimate of total revenue for year 2018 was N897.423billion, of which N720.123billion would be generated internally.

According to him, a total of N148.699billion will be sourced through deficit financing within the state’s medium-term expenditure framework.

He said that in 2018, economic affairs would continue to dominate and get the largest allocation of the budget, adding that there was a lot to be achieved in the coming year.

According to Ambode, as at November 2017, the 11-month period revenue performed at N448.396 billion at 76 percent compared to full year’s performances in 2016 of N449.609 billion at 83 percent and N399.382 billion at 82 percent for 2015.

“Suffice it to say that the overall budget performance stood at 74 percent as at November 2017 and it is projected to close at 80 percent by the end of the year 2017.

“The state average contribution to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 2015-2017 remains strong at about 30 percent,” he said.

Giving highlights of the sectoral allocation for 2018 budget estimate, Ambode said that General Public Services got an allocation of N171.623 billion while public order and safety got N46.612 billion.

He said N473.866 billion was allocated to economic affairs while environmental protection got N54.582 billion.