Lagos targets N1trn yearly budget size by 2018

• To increase monthly IGR to N30bn by 2017, N50bn by 2018

Lagos State government has announced its readiness to reduce dependence on Federal Allocation (FA) and increase its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to N30billion monthly in 2017 and hitting N50billion target monthly in 2018 that will lead to a yearly budget size of N1trillion.

The state government disclosed this on Sunday following the conclusion of a four-day retreat for members of the State Executive Council, Body of Permanent Secretaries and heads of government agencies, held at the VIP Chalets in Badagry, with the theme “Reflect, Reappraise, Restrategise: Raising the Bar of Governance.”

In a communiqué issued at the end of the retreat and jointly read to journalists by the state’s Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Steve Ayorinde; Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr Akinyemi Ashade and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information, Mr Fola Adeyemi, the government said participants deliberated intensively on the six pillars of Lagos State Development Plan (LSDP).

These, according to the communiqué, are infrastructural development, sustainable environment, finance, economic development, social development and security and governance.

Ashade said that appropriate measures were being adopted to achieve the target.

“Yes, it is ambitious. It requires thinking and what we are going to do differently is to ensure that we use technology to drive it in terms of automation and collection.

“The land administration system, the EGIS also will support this our initiative and we believe that once we are through with the automation of the processes, the reform in the consumption tax administration in the state and blocking all loopholes, we believe we will have the right funding to finance all these plans and we will not forget Public Private Partnership because we are also going to use that to drive implementation of our plan,” Ashade said.

Ayorinde, while reading the communiqué, said participants reaffirmed the vision of the Akinwunmi Ambode-led administration to make life better and more meaningful for the people.