Governor of Ondo State, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, on Monday presented an Appropriation Bill of N190 billion for the 2019 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly for scrutiny and approval.
Akeredolu said the budget tagged “Budget of Advancement” had a 4.74 per cent increase on the N171 billion estimate of 2018.
According to him, it is made up of N87.91 billion (46.30 per cent) capital expenditure and N82.18 billion (43.20 per cent) recurrent expenditure, among others.
He said the 2019 budget has been prepared based on the projections of the 2019-2021 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).
“MTEF is a three-year planning document that shows the aggregate resources envelope available to our government and how the resources are allocated to meet the developmental agenda of government,” he said.
The governor said that the budget reflected his administration’s commitment to working assiduously to fulfill his electoral promises to the people of Ondo state.
He said the objective of the budget included completion of ongoing programmes/projects, rapid economic development and transformation, sustained expansion of fiscal space and rejigging of the economy through strategic wealth creation for the productive sector
Others are enhancing accelerated rural development, promotion of functional education, ensuring technological growth and robust human capital investment initiatives and providing social security services.
“Our administration has taken noticeable and significant steps to attract investors to the state and highlight areas where the state has comparative advantages for their possible intervention.
“As promised during the 2018 budget presentation, we are gradually increasing the percentage of capital allocation as depicted in the expenditure allocation table,” he said.
Akeredolu said the state had also adopted an innovative and integrated approach to drive government revenue through technology and increase the internally generated revenue by at least 50 per cent.
The governor said steps were also taken to ensure drastic reduction in reliance on federal transfers through diversification of the state’s economy.
He lauded the lawmakers for their support and the mutual understanding between the legislature and the executive since his administration assumed power two years ago.
The Speaker, Bamidele Oleyelogun, commended the efforts of the administration to develop the state.
Oleyelogun assure the governor of speedy consideration of the appropriation bill.
