Amosun presents N200bn 2016 appropriation bill to Ogun Assembly

By Daud Olatunji

ABEOKUTA—Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State has presented over N200 billion as the state’s 2016 appropriation bill entitled “budget of optimization“ before the state house of Assembly.

The governor, while presenting a total budget of N200,274,453,352 which is about 4.9% lower than that of last year, disclosed that the budget was targeted at optimising the opportunities and maximising the resources.

Like the previous year’s budget, the Education Sector has the largest share with N40.1 billion, which is about 20.06% of the total budget, followed by Health which garnered a total of N14.3 billion, at 17.3%.

The Agriculture sector, having N10.2 billion, represents 5.08% of the total budget while others are Urban Renewal and Housing sector which has the sum of N26.56 billion.

In the bill, Rural Infrastructure takes N31.04 billion which represents about 15.5%.

In all, the total recurrent expenditure stands at N100, 962,975,109 which represents 50.4% of the budget while the Capital expenditure stands at N99,291,477,943, representing 49.6%.

The governor disclosed that the budget is a balanced one looking at the difference between the capital and recurrent expenditure.

He, however, claimed that his five cardinal programmes take 38.9%, which he said, is about N76,973,540,409 while other sectors account for 61.1%, amounting to N122,300,912,943.

Earlier in his address, Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Hon. Suraj Ishola Adekunbi, thanked the people of the state for giving them the opportunity to serve again and promised not to let them down.

He disclosed that despite the heterogeneous nature of political party representation in the House, they have been able to maintain cordial and peaceful relationship with the executive arm of the government.

Adekunbi posited that this has reflected in the level of achievements recorded so far by the present administration in the state.

Dignitaries at the presentation include the past administrators and Heads of Service in the state, Justice Damola Bakre, Chief Doja Adewolu, top government functionaries and  groups across the state.