•Reiterates commitment to construction of fourth mainland bridge
Segun James
With the signing of the state’s appropriation bill into law, Lagos State is expected to rake in N924.805 billion by December, 2023.
This is equivalent to N77.067 billion monthly revenue generation.
The State Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Sam Egube, who disclosed this during a media briefing yesterday, said Lagos States Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) was expected to contribute 65 per cent (N682,906bn) of the projected Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), while about 23 per cent (N241.899bn) was expected to be generated by other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government.
The State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had tagged the 2023 budget as, “Budget of Continuity,” noting that it was to complete all ongoing projects in different parts of the state.
On October 27, 2022, Sanwo-Olu had presented a N1.692 trillion to the State Assembly, which was passed by the lawmakers on December 12, 2022.
The State Assembly however, raised the approved budget by N76 billion to N1.768 trillion and on January 27, the governor signed the appropriation bill into law.
The governor, while presenting the budget to the State Assembly, had said the state government was expecting a N1.342 billion revenue to fund the budget.
The deficit of N350.411 billion was projected to be funded by a combination of internal, external loans and bond issuance.
Speaking further, Egube said as at December 31st, 2022, last year’s budget posted a performance of 74 per cent, with revenue performance at 77 per cent, while capital and recurrent expenditure performed at 70 per cent and 81 per cent respectively.
He added that the 70 per cent performance of capital expenditure was as a result of the late closure of the N134.815 billion bond transaction, which was oversubscribed in December 2022, and utilisation deferred till year 2023.
The Commissioner therefore stated the approved 2023 Budget of N1.768 trillion was made up of N1.020 trillion (capital expenditure) and N748.097 billion (recurrent expenditure – debt charges inclusive), resulting in a capital to recurrent ratio of 58:42.
The total revenue was estimated at N1.418 trillion, while deficit-funding requirement was N350.411 billion, which at 25 per cent of total revenue implied that the budget was strongly dependent on revenue.
As a result of this, the Commissioner urged the residents and those that have business with the state to fulfil their responsibilities as and when due by paying their tax.
Egube said, “The state government has reiterated its stance in continuing to invest in the provision of affordable homes for the people of Lagos through its Social Housing Programme by injecting a total of N67.1 billion.
“Some of the social housing program the budget targets include: the completion of 444 units of building projects at Sangotedo Phase ll, completion of 420 units of building Projects at Ajara, Badagry Phase ll and the construction of 136 units of building Projects at Ibeshe ll among others.
“The state government commitment towards the state’s 5-year agric road map had seen to the commissioning of the Imota Rice mills which will provide support to farmers and improve food systems generally in the state.
“In addition to this, the state will invest a total sum of N45.1 billion for food security through cattle feedlot project, fish processing hub programmes and wholesale produce hub and market thus improving wholesomeness of food, reduction in food prices and optimisation of the agricultural sector.”
He added: “The N86 billion investment in public order and safety sector shows the state’s continuous commitment to ensuring that Lagos is safe for living, working and investment. It is important to note that N12 billion has been earmarked for the provision of rescue and emergency operation equipment for disaster management. Also, provision has been made for surveillance and body cameras for security monitoring.”
He said the year 2023 budget would invest in strengthening intelligence gathering/capacity building capabilities together with improving the ease of doing business through the Smart-City project, the Lagos new Data Center project, Eko Excel project, E-GIS and the Oracle upgrade project.
“We believe that there are huge revenue generating opportunities in the real estate, transportation, and trade sectors. Through active management of our assets, we will organise ourselves better to harvest more appropriate taxes and income from our capital investments and human capital development.
“The state is totally committed to ensuring that the dividend from its investments in Integrated Transport Infrastructure, which will materialise into the birth of the fully functional light rail (Red-Blue) system, the first of its kind by a sub-national government in Africa and the 37km Fourth Mainland Bridge will be felt by the citizens of the state.
‘These will reduce commute time to millions of Lagosians, reduce congestion on the existing Carter, Eko, Third Mainland Bridges and Ikorodu Road thus increasing productivity, quality of life, as well as improving the overall transportation system in the state.”
