Lagos annual budget may hit N1 trillion by 2018, says commissioner

Akinyemi Ashade, Lagos state commissioner for economic planning and budget, on Tuesday said the state’s annual budget might hit N1 trillion by 2018.

Ashade said this at the ongoing ministerial briefing to commemorate the second year anniversary of the administration of Akinwunmi Ambode, the state governor.

He also said the state planned to generate N50 billion internal revenue per month from next year.

The size of the state’s 2017 budget is N812.998 billion, while that of 2016 was N662.588 billion.

According to Ashade, to achieve the trillion naira budget, the government will adopt strategies such as aggressive growth in IGR through taxes and non-tax revenues.

He said other strategies would include full deployment of oracle business solutions to eliminate revenue leakages, sustainable fiscal balance with appropriate level of public sector borrowing and acceptable aggregate public debt.

“We shall foster a robust environment for increased private sector investments through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) initiatives and other strategies for increased foreign direct investment (FDI) as initiated by the office of overseas affairs & investment (Lagos Global),” Ashade said.

Ashade said the ministry had continued to support the administration by evolving clear planning parameters to achieve the agenda of the government as adopted in the Lagos State Development Plan (LSDP) 2012-2025.

He added that during the period under review, the ministry was able to manage the economy of the state through prudent and stringent management of available resources.