Oyo prioritises agric, education, infrastructure in N207bn 2017 budget

• Targets 6 million residents at N3,000 annual tax
• Reads riot act at “one million boys”
• Eleyele-Eruwa road set to be awarded

AT an estimated budget sum of N207,671,485,300, the priority of governance, in Oyo State, in 2017, will be Infrastructure, Agriculture, Education, Industrialisation, Social Welfare and Employment generation.
The 2017 appropriation proposal, an upward review of about N33,902,080,856 from the approved 2016 budget sum of N 173,769,404,444, covers a Capital Expenditure of about N80.80 billion and Recurrent expenditure of N126.87 billion.
Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State made this known when he presented the state’s 2017 appropriation proposal, tagged “Budget of Self Reliance”, at the State House of Assembly, on Thursday.
The proposed sum covers a personnel cost of N56.04 billion (26.7 per cent), overhead cost of N20.04 billion, Consolidated Revenue Fund Charges of N50.79 and capital expenditure of N80.80 billion.
A sectoral breakdown shows that N46.62 billion is allocated to the Economic sector, N25.65 billion to the Social Services sector, N0.9 billion to the Law and Justice sector and N7.65 billion to the General Administration sector.
Noting that the 2017 budget would be largely IGR driven, Ajimobi stated about 6 million residents of the state at a presumed tax rate of N3,000 annually were being targeted.
Internally Generated Revenue is targeted to provide 51.64 per cent of the budget, with fund from the Federation Account expected to make up 28.41 per cent, and capital receipts providing 16.35 per cent of the estimated sum.
According to Ajimobi, there will be special focus on improving the state’s Internally Generated Revenue, promotion of public-private partnership, stimulating interest in Small and Medium Scale Enterprises.
To cater for ongoing road projects, he said the sum of N25.50 billion had been proposed aside from N532 million budgeted for public building projects in 2017.
In addition, he said the government was set to award the contract for the rehabilitation of the Eleyele-Eruwa road, while assuring that the 90 per cent of residents of the state will be able to access potable water by the end of 2017, going by ongoing water works projects.
In Agriculture, Ajimobi posited that the “Agric Oyo” programme had increased the level of food production in the state by 27.5 per cent, especially noting its potential to promote food sufficiency, youth employment, reduction in rural-urban migration and social security.
In the same vein, he hinted of the implementation of the “Anchor Borrowers” programme which will provide requisite credit facility support to farmers and engage about a million persons in agriculture.
With regards to the education sector, Ajimobi restated the abolition of automatic promotion in public schools, and the implementation of Education Trust Fund, which will see interested individuals support the state’s education sector.
Meanwhile, Ajimobi has stated that the proposed Police Children Secondary School, at Igboora, would take off in January 2017.
Towards encouraging investment in the vast land of the state, he hinted that government had resolved to award 90 per cent discount to use of land for Agric purposes, 70 per cent for manufacturing, 50 per cent discount for commercial purposes and 85 per cent for Religious and educational purposes.
He affirmed that election was scheduled to hold in the 33 local government areas and 35 local council development areas in February 2017, calling on all stakeholders to see to a chaos-free election.
He also lampooned the recent spate of violence in Ibadan, the state capital, especially the activities of thugs, known as “one million boys”, warning that the state government would decisively deal with any such group that foments violence.
“The Oyo state government under my leadership will not tolerate any form of violence, brigandage, and destruction of properties, chaos and lawlessness under any guise. We will deal with such perpetrators with full force of law,” Ajimobi averred.
He especially noted that the state had resolved to embrace the Contributory Pension scheme to settle retirement benefit liability of employees in the state’s public service.
According to Ajimobi, the solid waste management initiative was targeted towards generating 30 megawatts of electricity.
Meanwhile, an analysis of the 2016 budget performance shows a revenue generation rate of 46.09 per cent; expenditure (recurrent and capital) performance was 54.52 per cent.
Describing the 2016 fiscal year as tough, Ajimobi said a lot was not achieved due to lack of funds but expressed optimism that that the restructuring and repositioning strides of the state government would yield positive results in the 2017 fiscal year.
In his remarks, Speaker of the Assembly, Honourable Micheal Adeyemo, advanced the need to review rates and taxes to boost the state’s IGR, in view of drop in FG allocation.
This is just as he assured that the Assembly would expedite the passage of the appropriation bill to further improve the socio-economic life of the citizenry.