Lagos Made N503.7bn IGR, Budget Performed 82% Last Year-Ambode

Tayo Olanipekun

Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State on Thursday said in spite of the state of the nation’s economy in 2017,the state budget performed well as the Center of Excellence also raked in a huge amount in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

He put the performance of the budget last year at 82 per cent and that of the IGR at 78 per cent or N503.7bn, while the recurrent and capital expenditure also performed at 92 and 76 per cent or N281.33 bn and 387.60 respectively.

Governor Ambode revealed this during the state’s first quarterly Town Hall Meeting of 2018, the 10th in the series, held at Lagos Television (LTV) Complex, Ikeja.

The meeting was held to give account of Ambode’s stewardship to Lagosians.

According to the governor, the state was entering the New Year with confidence and “is on a solid prosperity footing and with a lot of interesting prospects for all Lagosians.”

He said Lagos excelled due to the overwhelming backing of residents who supported and cooperated with the government.

“Despite the harsh economy, our state budget performed at 82 percent. Total Revenue Generated was N503.7bn representing a performance of 78 percent; total Recurrent Expenditure was N281.33bn, a performance of 92 percent, while Total Capital Expenditure was N387.60bn or 76 percent performance.

“With this we initiated and delivered many high impact projects and critical infrastructure aimed at making life easier for our people. We disbursed funds to small businesses and individuals to stimulate the economy,” he said.

Governor Ambode noted the 2018 budget would place emphasis on health and education, adding that between October and December of 2017, the government fulfilled its promise to indigenous students in tertiary institutions across the state by disbursing a total sum of N635.5 million to 8,419 students across the State.

Other accomplishments of the state, according to the Governor, included the Employment Trust Fund (ETF) that disbursed N4.5billion to 5,500 beneficiaries as at December 2017; the Toxicology Unit of the Lagos state DNA Centre that would be the first of its kind in Sub-Sahara Africa and the Agege Stadium that has been upgraded to host the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) Champions League matches this year.

Speaking further on the outlook for 2018, the governor said: “We have already kicked off for the New Year. Just this week we have commissioned the Safety Arena in Oshodi and performed the ground-breaking ceremony for the new J. K. Randle Centre. We will continue at this pace and vigorously pursue all on-going projects.”