Oyo state governor, Seyi Makinde said the state has achieved 50.32 per cent implementation on the current 2020 budget which the disruptive Covid-19 pandemic impacted negatively, making it to fall short of the projected 70 per cent performance.
The Governor noted while presenting the N266.6 billion naira appropriation plan for the year 2021 representing 53.26 per cent increase on the 2020 revised budget to the state legislature. N56.3 billion or 21 per cent is proposed for the education sector while N130.3 billion is for infrastructure.
“One of the issues that have been facing our state’s budget is underperformance. By the end of quarter one, (Q1), 2019 budget performance was 38 per cent. We were determined to increase this and had set a mark of 70 per cent performance. Although we have not yet met up with our target, our budget performance as at now is above average at 50.32 per cent. We accomplished this despite the economic shock induced by the pandemic”.
Speaking at the presentation of the “budget of continued consolidation”, the governor highlighted the other successes recorded in the current fiscal year noting that the state government was bullish in its approach towards consolidating on its achievements for greater performance in 2021.
“We have been able to lower our infrastructural deficit, make improvements in healthcare delivery, improve the quality of education and achieve milestones in our security systems. We remained bullish in our approach to developing Oyo State and despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy, we were just less than N200 million short of our target monthly. As of September 2020, we had recorded an Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR) of N25.6billion representing 26.4 per cent increase in year on year”.
Governor Makinde said the government will not rest on its oars in its drive to take the state off its total dependence on federal allocation noting that his administration plans to increase the state’s IGR to N102.8 billion in the year 2021 up from the current N25.6 billion by bringing more taxpayers into the system without necessarily increasing taxes on the people.
“Let me quickly state that our use of the Alternative Project Funding Approach (APFA), the Contractor’s Project Financing Scheme, as well as targeted loans, have gone a long way to helping us to improve our budget performance.
“This year, we are again pegging our budget performance goal at 70 percent. Since we have been able to increase by 12 per cent points in performance over 2019 thus far, despite the economic challenges we faced, an additional 20 percent points increase should be attainable.”
The main components of the 2021 budget include N136. 2 billion recurrent expenditure, Capital expenditure is N130.3 billion while the larger share of N56.3 Billion or 21 per cent is proposed for the education sector. Agriculture sector will receive an allocation of N9.5 billion or 3.6 per cent, N13.2 billion for the health sector.
Oyo state, according to the governor used the tenets of the Federation’s Fiscal Sustainability Plan (FSP) and other development aspirations as a guide in the preparation of the 2021 Budget and have been able to redeem state enterprises that have been laying waste for decades. These include the Pacesetter Quarry and Asphalt Plant, Ijaiye; the Pacesetter Fruit Processing Plant in Oko; and the Agbowo Shopping Complex in Ibadan.
“It will also please you to know that we have commenced the preparation of the 20-year Oyo State Development Plan (2021-2040), a new blueprint which when completed, will facilitate a speedy socio-economic development with the Medium-Term Sector Strategy and Medium-Term Expenditure Framework.
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