Akeredolu presents N171B budget, commits to inter-change bridge at Ore

Ondo State Governor, Mr Oluwarotimi Akeredolu

Ondo state governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu yesterday presented N171, 268, 000, 000 billion as the budget for the 2018 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly.

Akeredolu, who presented the budget on the floor of the House, listed government programmes for the 2018 fiscal year, tagged the budget as a “Budget of Progress.”
In the N171 billion budget estimate, he earmarked N81.521 billion for recurrent expenditure and N68.096 for capital expenditure.

The governor disclosed that the state government is partnering with World Bank to access rural development in agriculture and infrastructural development to the tune of N3b.

Aside rural development, he outlined 19 major road projects across the three senatorial districts of the state, including an interchange bridge/flyover in Ore, the commercial hub and headquarters of Odigbo LGA. Over 15b is set aside for the projects.

He added that the document was christened “Budget of Progress” in order to achieve the programmes contained in his administration’s Strategic Development and Policy Implementation. According to him, his administration would pursue activities targeted at encouraging productivities and creation of real opportunity for the people in the next fiscal year.

He asked the Assembly to give the budget realistic scrutiny before approval, as he praised the House for passing into law all the Public Financial Management law which had been pending before the House for six years.

The governor consequently listed the objectives for the 2018 budget to include intensifying efforts on independent revenue initiatives, massive infrastructural development, wealth creation through empowerment of youths, artisans, farmers and market women; and enhancing the community development through improved collaboration with communities, among others. On the revenue projection for the 2018, Akeredolu said his administration was mindful of the challenges posed by inadequate revenue to accomplish the budget’s objective, but stated that he had commissioned some consultants to complement the existing efforts on revenue generation and collection.