Chinelo Obogo

Lagos  State Governor, Babajide Sanwo Olu, has requested the approval of the state Assembly for a N250 billion loan.

In a re-ordering letter he sent to the Assembly which was read at plenary yesterday by the Clerk of the Assembly Sani Azeez, the governor sought a fixed rate bond of N100 billion from the capital market and an internal loan of N150 billion.

Sanwo Olu, in a letter,  said the budgetary provisions of recurrent and capital budget of ministries, departments and agencies are not likely to be utilised before the end of the year, pointing out  that N34.050 billion can be re-ordered.

He 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.

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The governor noted that  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 said the following on-going projects started by the immediate administration that would benefit from the re-ordering will include the  Lagos Badagry Express road; Agege Pen Cinema overhead bridge; Agric-Isawo road; Bola Ahmed Tinubu -Igbogbo road and rehabilitation of schools.

Speaker Mudashiru Obasa,  who subsequently committed the governor’s request to the joint committees on Finance and Budget and Economic Planning, charged them  to report back to the House on Monday.