Acting governor of Ondo state, Lucky Aiyedatiwa has presented a budget proposal of N384,533,000,000 for the 2024 fiscal year.
This was against the N275,979,184,000.00 budgeted for the 2023 fiscal year.
Christened Budget of Economic Resilience, Aiyedatiwa said the budget contained a reasonable increase in the personnel estimates to cover the imminent wage increase for workers.
According to the Ondo 2024 budget proposal, the Infrastructural Development sector has the highest allocation of N95,482,176,340.36 which represented 24.8% while the education sector got N47,729,164,261.85 representing 12.4%.
Aiyedatiwa said granting the highest allocation to infrastructural development was to stimulate the economy in 2024.
“The current national and global economic realities point to reason why we must consciously and programmatically re-arrange our fiscal priorities to target the growth drivers of our economy so as to quickly fix and reflate the economy, to keep it afloat.
“We are aware of the negative impacts of fuel subsidy removal and floating exchange rate on the people. All these are put into consideration while projecting for expenditure in this Budget.”
Aiyedatiwa sought the continuous partnership of the citizens to make the state run smoothly in line with the mindset of Governor Akeredolu.
“The challenges that lie ahead in the incoming year dictate that we should all work together, as we seek to create an enduring economy for our dear State, knowing full well that whatever we do today will be referenced tomorrow.”
Speaker Olajidi Olamide said the Assembly would pass the budget before December 31st, 2023.
He said the accelerated passing of the budget was because it was expected to begin operation in January 2024.
Credit: thenationonlineng.net
