The acting Governor of Ondo State, Mr Lucky Aiyedatiwa has presented the 2024 budget of three hundred eighty four billion, five hundred and thirty three billion naira, tagged “Budget of Economic Resilience” to the State House of Assembly for approval.
The acting Governor reiterated that if the current drive by all revenue generating agencies, spearheaded by the Ondo State Internal Revenue Service, is sustained, the state would be able to attain desired level of internal revenue generation
The Acting Governor said: “the current national and global economic realities point to the reason why we must consciously and programmatically rearrange our fiscal priorities to target the growth drivers of our economy so as to quickly fix and reflate the economy, to keep it afloat.
“We are aware of the negative impacts of fuel subsidy removal and floating exchange rate on the people. All these are put into consideration while projecting for expenditure in this Budget. We have made a reasonable increase in the Personnel Estimates to cover the imminent wage increase for workers.
“We will also continue to roll out palliative measures to cushion the effects of the fuel subsidy removal. The impact of climate change is another issue we have resolved to tackle headlong in the coming year. As we all noticed, the duration and intensity of rainfall relatively increased this year and produced huge run-offs and flooding in many local government areas.”
Rapid development
Speaker of the House, Mr Olamide Oladiji while responding said Ondo State had recorded rapid development and commended government for giving every sector attention despite dwindling revenue.
Mr Oladiji promised that the lawmakers would speedily consider and pass the budget after scrutinising it properly.
At plenary presided over by the Speaker, Olamide Oladiji, directed the Committee on Finance and Appropriation to do justice to the budget and submit to the House within the shortest time possible.
While noting that the proposal is for the overall interest of the people of the state, Mr Oladiji charged the Committee to do justice to the bill.
The speaker also directed that all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies,(MDAs) to liaise with standing committees and equally come along with each Chairman of the committee before appearing for budget defense, while anybody who fails will not be allowed to appear for budget defense.
Ondo Lateefah Ibrahim
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