Moshood Adebayo
Lagos government has projected the sum of N136.100 billion as sectoral allocation to Education in its 2020 budget size of N1.169 trillion, making it the highest to any sector.
It is N70.407 billion higher than the 2019 budget of N65.693 billion, made up of N711.033 billion for capital expenditure and N457.529 billion for recurrent expenditure. Budget of Awakening”.
Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Sam Egube, who gave the budget analysis, yesterday, said the education budget covered the construction and rehabilitation of 300 schools, provision of furniture and equipment for science laboratories, among other projects.
Egube said the state was also targeting the generation of N886.041 billion as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
He said of the annual IGR projection, the government targets about N73.86 billion monthly IGR to finance the 2020 N1.169trillion budget. He expressed optimism that the government would achieve the IGR target through expanding the tax net with the deployment of technology and other initiatives. Egube said the government would make massive investments in technology and allied facilities to improve the efficiency of revenue generating agencies.
“We believe that there are huge revenue generating opportunities in the informal sector, including real estates, transportation for which Lagos State is known for,” he said.
The allocation for road and infrastructure, which got the second highest allocation with a N117.248 billion allocation, according to Egube would help in addressing the zero-pothole strategy, as well as create links roads within the metropolis to resolve traffic congestion and its attendants risks.
In a bid to address the menace of traffic nuisance in the state, the state government also budgeted N44.510 billion as against 2019 figure of N17.590 billion budgeted under the transportation family for the Blue and Red rail lines, junction improvement, as well as the completion of trailer parks.
The health sector was allocated N111.775 billion, as against N53.141 billion last year.The fund would be utilised for the upgrading, renovation of health facilities and completion of ongoing healthcare infrastructure, including matronal and child care centres and health insurance scheme.