Benjamin Omoike l Tuesday, October 15, 2019
IKEJA, Lagos, Nigeria – A request for approval of the sum of N250 billion loan has been made to the state House of Assembly by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in a reordering letter read at plenary on Tuesday.
To this effect, the letter was read by the Clerk of the Assembly, Mr. Sani Azeez. The loan was broken down as follows: a fixed rate bond of N100 billion from the capital market and an internal loan of N150 billion.
In the letter, the governor said the budgetary provisions of recurrent and capital budget of ministries, departments and agencies are not likely to be utilized before the end of the year, pointing out N34.050 billion can be re-ordered.
Sanwo-Olu said the government was constrained by the lack of revenue for the remaining months of the year and will not be in a position to propose a supplementary budget, which informed the recourse to re-ordering 2019 budget.
According to him, the budget as at 31st August, 2019 had a 71 per cent overall performance, which is below the set target of 100 per cent.
“Further analysis shows that the recurrent expenditure stood at 80 per cent while capital expenditure was at 64 per cent performance, portending a 49:51 capital/recurrent ratio against the target of 55:45.
“It should be noted that some of the major MDAs that are supposed to implement the capital expenditure are performing below expectation, while others have almost exhausted their budgetary provisions”, he added.
Sanwo-Olu therefore implored all other arms of government to cooperate with him by ensuring that they improve on spending in priority areas.
The governor said the administration was desirous of keeping its electoral promises to the citizens and has resolved to take advantage of clement weather condition in the latter part of the year to complete various projects.
The specifically mentioned the following on-going projects started by the immediate administration that would benefit from the re-ordering as: completion of Lagos Badagry express road; Agege Pen cinema overhead bridge; Agric-Isawo road; Bola Ahmed Tinubu -Igbogbo road; rehabilitation of schools; initiate and complete smart city project and zero tolerance for portholes amongst others.
Speaker Mudashiru Obasa subsequently committed the governor’s request to the joint committees on Finance and Budget and Economic planning, they are to report back to the House on Monday, October 21, 2019.
