The Oyo State Government on Friday, December 8, 2023, gave a breakdown of the N434.2billion 2024 budget proposal presented to the State House of Assembly by the state governor, ‘Seyi Makinde.
The state’s Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning and a Professor of Economics, Musibau Adetunji Babatunde, gave the breakdown of the budget estimates in a parley with Civil Society Organisations and members of the press.
According to Prof. Babatunde, the 2024 budget was prepared against the backdrop of continuing global and national economic challenges.
He said that the government would execute the budget to bring about sustainable economic recovery in the state.
He said: “The proposed budget reflects the economic recovery plan of the present administration towards addressing the current economic challenges and fast track economic recovery.
“The budget indicates the commitment of the administration to economic reforms necessary for creating opportunities towards achieving economic recovery and also reflects government desires on sectoral allocations to reflate the economy, unlock private investment, stimulate effective demand, accelerate economic growth and achieve sustainable development.”
Presenting the breakdown and analysis, the commissioner stated that the highlight of the budget is part of the physical transparency and accountability of Governor Makinde-led administration.
He added that the highlights of the budget, which, according to him, would determine the destiny of Oyo State in the next fiscal year, is adequately captured to reflect the governor’s Roadmap for Sustainable Development 2023-2027 and the Sustainable Action for Economic Recovery (SAfER) programme that followed the subsidy removal and exchange rate unification.
Professor Babatunde equally explained that the estimate for recurrent expenditure in the 2024 Budget proposal is N211,884,445,738.94 billion, representing 48.80 percent of the budget, while the capital expenditure of N222,337,320,199.85 billion represents 51.20 percent of the budget.
He further said that the percentage of the recurrent expenditure estimate was high because it had been designed to capture the monthly wage award of N25,000 to civil servants and N15,000 to pensioners, which increased the state’s wage by an additional N2.8billion in its first month of payment and is expected to run for six months.
He noted, however, that the 2024 Budget would focus more on ongoing capital projects and programmes that would boost human capital, unlock the state’s economic potential through agriculture and agribusiness value chain, tourism and solid minerals development, as well as promotion of Public Private Partnership, among others.
The sectoral analysis of the proposed budget showed the government’s commitment to the economic recovery of the state, as the social and economic sectors, which comprise education, health, youth and sports, culture and tourism, agriculture, works and infrastructure and finance received the largest allocations.
Prof Babatunde also used the opportunity to highlight the revenue projections in the budget draft, stating that the state government looks forward to earning N86 billion in statutory allocations, N71.5 billion in Value Added Tax, N10 billion in Excess Crude, N36.3 billion in capital receipts, among others.
He added that the government has projected N72 billion as the Internally Generated Revenue for the year 2024 at the rate of N6 billion monthly, noting, however, that residents of the states should not exercise fears over tax increment.
Prof Babatunde maintained that the state is reviewing the current tax administration to ensure that more taxable entities are brought into the tax net, while it will also block leakages by improving revenue collection through ICT.
The commissioner also gave an assurance that there would be control and enforcement on spending limits to ensure that a sound budgetary system is put in place to include aggregate fiscal discipline, efficiency and effective spending of the budget.
Earlier in his opening remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Budget and Economy Planning, Dr Sunday Ojelabi, said the budget breakdown was necessary so as to involve all stakeholders on the implementation of the 2024 Budget.
Those present at the budget analysis were the Executive Assistant to the Governor on Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Alhaji Gafar Bello; Special Adviser, Budget and Economic Planning, Hon. Simeon Oyeleke; and Director of Admin and Supplies in the Ministry, Alhaji H.A. Bello, among others.
