From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State on Wednesday presented N294.5billion 2022 budget proposal to the state House of Assembly, tagged ‘Budget of Growth and Opportunities.’
In the appropriation bill, the capital expenditure receives the highest allocation in the budget proposal for the first time since the administration came on board in 2019. A total of N156billion, representing 52.7 per cent, has been allocated to the capital expenditure. For the 2022 fiscal year, the recurrent expenditure stands at N138.5billion, representing 47.3 per cent of the total budget estimate.
The budget presentation came almost two months earlier in comparison to the presentation of N266.66billion 2021 budget, which was done by Makinde on Monday November 23, 2020, apart from N50billion 2021 supplementary budget he also sent to the lawmakers earlier this year.
Makinde, in his 2022 budget speech, said: “In keeping with our tradition in the last two years, we again embarked on a town hall meetings on the 2022 budget and given stakeholders the opportunity to contribute towards the direction of this budget. The people have again spoken and based on their feedback; we have prepared our budget for the 2022 Fiscal Year. I have the honour of presenting to the House this N294,516,445,107.00, 2022 budget proposal.
“As stated earlier, this is a budget of growth and opportunities. Growth, as we inject N156,000,136,971.00 into our economy, through investments in infrastructure and ensuring that our people have higher purchasing power. For the first time, our proposed capital expenditure at 52.97 per cent is more than our recurrent expenditure.”
Giving the breakdown of the budget, Makinde states that education sector received N54.1billion, representing 18.37 per cent of the total budget, on which the governor said: “As can be noted, we have continued our tradition of keeping the education allocation above United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) standards.”
He added that the lion share of about N96.7billion has been allocated to infrastructure, which represents 32.83 per cent of the total budget, promising that his administration would continue to reduce the infrastructural deficit in the state. The health sector also receives N17.4 billion, representing 5.9 per cent of the budget, while N11.3 billion, which represents 3.84 per cent of the budget to agriculture
The governor listed the major capital projects to include 110-kilometre Ibadan Circular Road.
Makinde also gave a report on the performance of the 2021 budget going by half-year analysis, saying the performance stood at 60 per cent and that his administration targets 75 per cent within the next three months it remains for 2021 to run to an end.
On revenue generation, Makinde states that the state’s actual aggregate revenue was N78.2billion.The sum of N16.2 billion, representing 31.49 per cent was realised as the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), while statutory allocation from the Federation Account Allocation Committee was N17.13 billion, representing 62.29 per cent.