History was again made in Ogun State as Governor  Ibikunle Amosun presented a budget of N345.42 billion for the 2018 fiscal year to the Ogun State House of Assembly.

Governor Ibikunle Amosun

The budget tagged “Budget of Accelerated Development,” represents an increase of 57% compared with the 2017 budget, pointed out the title of the budget reflects his administration’s resolve to work more assiduously to deliver on his electoral promises to the people of Ogun State, by commencing new projects and fast-tracking the completion of all ongoing projects, before the end of his tenure in 2019.

Analyzing the budget, Amosun said the budget consists of Capital Expenditure of N223.721billion which is 64.77% and Recurrent Expenditure of N121.698bn. Personnel cost, made up of salaries and allowances stands at of N81.869bn while pension and gratuities account N13.50bn which is 3.9 % of total the recurrent expenditure, positing that the balance of N39.829bn which accounts for 11.53% is set aside for the overhead costs.

“Once again, we have placed great emphasis on capital projects as we build momentum into the end of our tenure. In order to accelerate the development of our dear State, we must continue to develop infrastructure that supports industry, improve road connectivity within our agricultural areas as well as between our agricultural belt and urban markets. In addition, investing in skills especially for youth and farmers helps to support inclusive growth,” Amosun said.

Education takes lion’s share of the budget with N79.25billion, which represents 22.9% of the budget, stressing that his administration, is gradually moving closer to the 26% recommended by UNESCO.

Health sector will gulp N21.199 billion, Agriculture N21.137, Housing & Urban Renewal N45.606 billion, while Rural & Infrastructural Development/ Employment Generation will gulp N240.921 billion

“In our primary schools, we are focused on capacity building for teachers across our school network. We have started work with Teach for Nigeria, a non-governmental organization, to transform teaching methodologies in primary schools in Ogun State with a current pilot of 20 schools”.

“We plan to begin a state-wide rollout of this exercise in 2018. We have also increased the budget for SUBEB by more than 400% to N8.9billion; to pay the backlog of counterpart funding that will allow us to draw down on Federal Funds already allocated to Ogun State for our primary schools. This will allow us to upgrade our primary schools and build teaching capacity for a dramatic improvement in primary school education in the coming years”.

In 2018 budget, Amosun disclosed that his administration will renovate and equip at least 57 Primary Healthcare Centres; at least one per LG/LCDA and the five State Hospitals, which, along with preventative interventions, serve as the bedrock of our healthcare delivery within the State.

“We also intend to build three new State hospitals, one in each senatorial district, making modern, higher quality secondary healthcare more accessible to our people”.

“The upgrade of laboratory and radio-diagnostic facilities in each of our federal constituencies and retraining of our healthcare providers in line with continuous professional development requirements for doctors and nurses”.

On agriculture, the governor noted that his government will accelerate land-clearing efforts, and create clusters of contiguous land for production, across the State, in 2018, positing that this will help us to form the basis for robust value chains for our crops as we engage smallholder farmers, and encourage them to form cooperatives, to create the critical mass required for off-takers, thereby helping to deliver consistent income to our farmers”.

“We are on course to significantly increase rice production in the State and have enabled the cultivation of 1,700 hectares for this purpose in 2018. Once the rice mills in Asero and Sawanjo are completed, we expect to be able to mill 80 metric tonnes per day at those sites”.

“We expect this increased activity to stimulate private sector engagement in the sector through Year 2018. We expect to add milling capacity in Ogun Waterside during the course of 2018, as we continue to increase the hectarage committed to rice cultivation. We will significantly promote our own nutritious and wholesome brand of Ofada rice, making the brand synonymous with our Ogun Standard, and increasing the reach to markets domestic and abroad”, the governor said.

On Housing, Amosun who described affordable Housing as a basic human right, he disclosed Abeokuta City Centre would be redesigned with plans that will redefine the state capital city. He said; “The new design will feature structures and open spaces that speak of the Ogun State of the future, delivering world class amenities to our citizens. This project will provide more employment options for our people, and encourage more higher income earners to make our State their home”.

He added that his government is set for the rehabilitation of 171 rural roads and 25 semi-urban roads across the State.

– Wale Adewunmi, Ogun State Correspondent