Lagos earmarks 67% of 2018 budget to capital expenditures

• Targets N720bn from IGR

Lagos State has earmarked a whopping N699.082bn for capital expenditures in its 2018 budget appropriation presented by the Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, to the state’s House of Assembly on Monday, 11th of December, 2017.

This amount represents 67 per cent of the total N1.046trillion as presented by the Governor. The budget is also targeting N720bn from its internally generated revenue

Outlining the key components of the budget, Governor Ambode said recurrent expenditure would gulp N347.039billion representing 33 percent and a 28.67 percent increase over Y2017 budget.

A sectoral breakdown of the proposed budget shows that General Public Services got N171,623bn, representing 16.41 percent; Public Order and Safety, N46.612bn, representing 4.46; Economic Affairs, N473,866bn, 45.30 percent; Environmental Protection, N54,582bn, representing 5.22percent; Housing and Community Amenities got N59,904bn, representing 5.73 percent.

Others are: Health sector got N92.676billion, representing 8.86percent; Recreation, Culture and Religion got N12.511billion, representing 1.20 percent; Education got N126.302billion representing 12.07percent. Social Protection got N8.042billion representing 0.77percent.

The governor also listed key projects captured in the 2018 budget to include the Agege Pen Cinema flyover; Alternative routes through Oke-Ira in Eti-Osa to Epe-Lekki Expressway; The 8km regional road to serve as alternative route to connect Victoria Garden City (VGC) with Freedom Road in Lekki Phase I; The completion of the on-going reconstruction of Oshodi International Airport Road into a 10-lane road and the BRT Lane from Oshodi to Abule-Egba.

The State number one citizen said that despite the modest achievements recorded in 2017, there was still much work ahead; assuring that Government would not relent in its efforts to give Lagosians the best by way of continuous and efficient service delivery.

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Governor Ambode said his administration remains committed to sustaining the tempo of continuous construction, rehabilitation, upgrading and maintenance of network of roads across the State including those within the boundary areas of Lagos and Ogun States.

“It is our resolve in 2018 to strive and complete all on-going projects in order to meet their specified completion period and embark on new strategic projects. We intend to improve on our internally generated revenue (igr) in the face of the dwindling accruable revenue allocation from the federal government, sustain our vision on wealth creation and poverty alleviation.” he said.