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From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State on Wednesday presented a N294.5 billion 2022 budget proposal to the state House of Assembly, tagged “Budget of Growth and Opportunities”.
In the appropriation bill, the capital expenditure receives the highest allocation in the budget proposal for the first time since the administration came on board in 2019. A total of N156 billion, representing 52.7 per cent, has been allocated to the capital expenditure. For the 2022 fiscal year, the recurrent expenditure stands at N138.5 billion, representing 47.3 per cent of the total budget estimate.
The budget presentation came almost two months earlier in comparison to the presentation of N266.66 billion 2021 budget, which was done by Makinde on Monday November 23, 2020, apart from N50 billion 2021 supplementary budget he also sent to the lawmakers earlier this year.
Governor Makinde, in his 2022 budget speech, said: ‘In keeping with our tradition in the last two years, we again embarked on a townhall meetings on the 2022 budget and given stakeholders the opportunity to contribute towards the direction of this budget. The people have again spoken and based on their feedback; we have prepared our budget for the 2022 Fiscal Year. I have the honour of presenting to the House this N294,516,445,107.00, 2022 budget proposal.
‘As stated earlier, this is a budget of growth and opportunities. Growth, as we inject N156,000,136,971.00 into our economy, through investments in infrastructure and ensuring that our people have higher purchasing power. For the first time, our proposed capital expenditure at 52.97 per cent is more than our recurrent expenditure.’
Giving the breakdown of the budget, Makinde stated that the education sector received N54.1 billion, representing 18.37 per cent of the total budget, regarding which the governor said: ‘As can be noted, we have continued our tradition of keeping the education allocation above United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) standards.’
He added that the lion share of about N96.7 billion has been allocated to infrastructure, which represents 32.83 per cent of the total budget, promising that his administration would continue to reduce the infrastructural deficit in the state. The health sector also receives N17.4 billion, representing 5.9 per cent of the budget, while N11.3 billion, which represents 3.84 per cent of the budget to agriculture
The governor listed the major capital projects his administration will embark on in 2022 to include 110kilometre Ibadan Circular Road.
Governor Makinde also gave a report on the performance of the 2021 budget going by half-year analysis, saying the 2021 budget performance stood at 60 per cent and that his administration targets 75 per cent within the next three months it remains for 2021 to run to an end.
On revenue generation, Makinde stated that the state’s actual aggregate revenue was N78.2 billion.The sum of N16.2 billion, representing 31.49 per cent was realised as the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), while statutory allocation from the Federation Account Allocation Committee was N17.13 billion, representing 62.29 per cent.
‘For the 2022 fiscal year, we are projecting and Internally Generated Revenue of N79,796,513,040.00. This is a tall order, but we intend to accomplish this without increasing taxes. As in the previous years, we will continue to expand our tax base to include more in the informal sector. We already see this working to our advantage as the recently released figures shows that our contributions to Nigeria’s Value Added Tax shot up to over N64 billion. This has made Oyo State the third highest contributor of VAT, after Lagos and River States in the country.’
The Speaker, Oyo State House of Assembly, Adebo Ogundoyin, noted that the presentation f the budget in September would the lawmakers enough time to scrutinise and consider the appropriation bill towards keeping to the January to December budget circle.
‘This presentation will spur us as lawmakers to redouble our efforts in terms of oversight functions to ensure strict and complete monitoring and implemention of the budget after its passage and assent to further enhance the economic prosperity and potentials of the State in the next fiscal year,’ Ogundoyin stated.
The budget presentation was graced by the Deputy Governor of the state, Rauf Olaniyan, and top government functionaries, as well as traditional rulers, including the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, and representatives of Olubadan of Ibadanland and Soun of Ogbomoso, apart from other monarchs and political leaders that attended the brief ceremony.
