Infrastructure, education prioritised as Makinde presents N294.5bn budget proposal

Infrastructure, education will be top priorities of governance in Oyo state for the 2022 fiscal year.

This is evident in the 2022 appropriation bill of N294,516,445,107 presented by Governor Seyi Makinde on the floor of the Oyo state house of Assembly, on Wednesday.

The proposed budget as presented shows that Infrastructure got the largest chunk of 32.83 percent at an estimated allocation of N96,686,534,987.

The major infrastructural projects for the year 2022 are the 110km Ibadan Circular Road, the commencement of the reconstruction of the Iseyin-Ogbomoso road and the Iseyin-Oyo road.

Makinde added that the next fiscal year will also see the commencement of the Ilu Tuntun business district at Akinyele local government area of the state.

He however noted that various infrastructural projects are at different stages of completion such as the four bus terminals, the Airport- Ajia-New Ife Express Road with a spur to Amuloko; Apete-Awotan-Akufo Road; Saki-Ogbooro-Igboho Road; Idi Ape-Basorun-Akobo- Odogbo Barracks Road and the Gedu-Oroki-Sabo-Asipa Road.

Noting that he was not unaware of the yearnings of citizens to fix roads across the state, Makinde said the infrastructural deficit in the state will be reduced upon the completion of ongoing road projects and the new road projects to begin in 2022.

Education is next to infrastructure in terms of allocation at N54,116,773,764 which is 18.37 percent of the budget proposal.

Health and Agriculture get the next highest chunks with the sum of N17,405,741,792 (5.9 percent) allocated to the Health sector while N11,319,289,737 (3.84 percent) is provided in the budget for Agribusiness.

On Security, Makinde said provision had been made to recruit more Amotekun Corps members, while the state will continue to invest in technology that supports its security architecture.

Generally, N156,000,136,971 (52.97 percent) is set aside for Capital expenditure while N138,516,308,136 (47.3 percent) is for Recurrent expenditure.

For the 2022 fiscal year, the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is set at N79,796,513,040, though Makinde said the IGR target will be reached without increasing taxes.

He said the focus will be on continuous expansion of the state’s tax base to include more in the informal sector.

Scoring the budget performance for the 2021 fiscal year at 60 percent presently, he said the state hoped to achieve 75 percent budget performance by end of this year.

Giving his remarks, Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Honourable Adebo Ogundoyin demanded Makinde to assent to the Legislative Fund Management Law which will give the legislature full financial autonomy.

Ogundoyin noted that the Law had been passed by this legislature and was before the governor awaiting assent.

He urged Makinde to follow the path of governors of Adamawa, Sokoto, Zamfara, Plateau, Delta, Ekiti and Ondo who has assented to the Legislative Fund Management Law.

He added that the governor’s assent will enable the state legislature to be able to implement Consolidated Legislative Salary Structure (CONLESS) which is a uniform salary structure for all the States Houses of Assembly.

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