Ogun State adds Inputs from Town Hall Meetings In 2023 Budget

No fewer than 203 inputs representing 95% of demands made at the citizen’s town hall meetings held across the four divisions of Ogun State, South-West Nigeria have been incorporated into the budget proposal for the year 2023.

The Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun stated this at the Treasury Board meeting held in Abeokuta, the state capital.

The Governor said that the Town Hall Meetings, apart from being avenues to reach out to more citizens to harness their inputs into the 2023 budget, also served as an important aspect in his administration’s inclusive governance in budget preparation.

The Treasury Board meeting was to consider how much is needed, how to raise it, allocate and account for the funds.

Governor Abiodun explained that ”the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) was not meant to produce budget, but how to develop good policies through the retooling of budget, emphasizing that it was important to think of each stage of the budget process in terms of roles in developing and implementing the state policies.”

The Governor, however, noted that it was imperative that adequate funds are located to areas that would have direct impact on the socio-economic well-being of the people.

“The 2023 budget is more important than the previous ones as the state requires a holistic constitution of the people’s needs and judicious application of the limited resources to areas that bear on the welfare of the citizenry.

”His administration would work to sustain all the developmental projects spread across the state that have a significant impact on the people, while all the ongoing projects would be given the desired attention towards completion,” he stated.

The Ogun State government had introduced the Medium Term Revenue Strategy, which is an improvement from the traditional expenditure to revenue driven budget by identifying and working on the major revenue generating agencies with a view to enhancing and sustaining revenue mobilisation, collection and enforcement.

He said; “An important legacy of this administration is the establishment of best practices in the way of public finance management which we are running. We aimed to consolidate on the global best practices in public financial management reforms that we embark on since 2019.

”The state fiscal is based on providing the enabling business environment for private and public sectors partnership through improving the efficiency and effectiveness of key processes including land administration, business registration, construction permit, land titling and the provision of key infrastructure and incentives to attract more investors to the state.”

Micro-economy stability
Governor Abiodun assured the citizenry that the 2023 budget would be all embracing, stressing that his administration had internalised policies to ensure efficiency and value for government spending as well as maintain an optimal balance in capital and recurrent expenditure, to achieve micro-economy stability and sustainable development.

The Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Olaolu Olabimtan, and the Economic Adviser and Commissioner for Finance, Dapo Okuboyejo said; ”the State is committed to a better atmosphere for businesses to thrive, while government would continue to deliver quality services to the people.”

The budget was meant to stimulate the post Covid-19 state economy by upscaling infrastructure and other sectors that would engender sustainable growth in the State.

Highlights of the meeting was the presentation by Heads of Ministries, Agencies and Departments of their budget estimates for 2023.

Mercy Chukwudiebere