Sanwo-Olu presents N2.2trn 2024 budget, says ‘better times are coming’

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos, has presented a N2.246 trillion budget estimate for 2024 to the state house of assembly.

Sanwo-Olu presented the budget titled ‘Budget of Renewal’ on Wednesday at the Lagos state house of assembly in Alausa, Ikeja, the state capital.

The proposed budget comprised N1.02 trillion recurrent expenditure, which is 45 percent of the total budget, and N1.22 trillion capital expenditure, which is 55 percent of the budget.

Sanwo-Olu said the budget size is made up of recurrent expenditure of N1.02 trillion (45 percent) and capital expenditure of N1.2 trillion (55 percent).

“The ‘Budget of Renewal’ has a total size of N2.246 trillion, comprising revenue of N1.848 trillion and deficit financing of N398.3 billion,” Sanwo-Olu said.

“The deficit financing shall consist of external and internal loans and bonds, which are well within our fiscal sustainability parameters.”

He added that the state anticipates internally-generated revenue of N1.251 trillion and federal government allocations of N596.629 billion.

“We propose a recurrent expenditure of N1.021 trillion, comprising overhead, and personnel costs and recurrent debt servicing,’’ Sanwo-Olu said.

He gave details of total overhead costs of N527.782 billion as overhead of N304.753 billion, subventions of N123 billion, and dedicated funds amounting to N100 billion.

He added that the personnel cost was N319.23 billion, while recurrent debt servicing was proposed at N174.94 billion.

“For capital expenditure, we propose N1.224 trillion classified as the capital expenditure of N856.387 billion and repayments of N367.893 billion,’’ he said.

Giving highlights of sectorial allocations, Sanwo-Olu said N535 billion was budgeted for economic affairs; N94 billion for environment; and N156 billion for health.

Education got N199 billion; social protection got N50 billion, while public order and safety had N84 billion.

“Mr speaker, honourable members of the house, better times are coming. We have gone through some very difficult times,” Sanwo-Olu said.

“While the pain is temporary, the dividends of the necessary investments we are making will be here to stay.

“We are working closely with the federal government to ramp up relief measures to help the people of Lagos state to alleviate the pains of the fuel subsidy removal and the impact of high inflation.

“We are especially concerned about transportation and food costs, and in 2024, we will be keying into the targeted food security initiatives of the federal government.

“For transportation, we are fully on board with the federal government’s CNG-powered buses initiative, which will deliver sizable numbers of the buses to each state for public transportation.”