Oyo Budget Prepared Against Global, Economic Challenges – Commissioner

Oyo State government has given a breakdown of the N434.2billion 2024 budget proposal, saying that it was prepared against the backdrop of continuing global and national economic challenges.

The state’s commissioner for Budget and Economic planning, Professor Musibau Adetunji Babatunde, who gave the breakdown of the budget estimates during a parley with Civil Society Organisations and members of the press, noted that the government would execute the budget to bring about sustainable economic recovery in the state.

Babatunde, professor of economics, stated that the 2024 budget was prepared “against the backdrop of continuing global and national economic challenges.

“The proposed budget reflects the economic recovery plan of the present administration towards addressing the current economic challenges and fast track economic recovery.

“The budget indicates the commitment of the administration to economic reforms necessary for creating opportunities towards achieving economic recovery and also reflects government desires on sectoral allocations to reflate the economy, unlock private investment, stimulate effective demand, accelerate economic growth and achieve sustainable development.”

The commissioner stated that the highlight of the budget was part of the physical transparency and accountability of Governor Makinde-led administration.

He added that the highlights of the budget, which according to him, would determine the destiny of Oyo State in the next fiscal year, was adequately captured to reflect the governor’s Roadmap for Sustainable Development 2023-2027 and the Sustainable Action for Economic Recovery (SAfER) programme that followed the subsidy removal and exchange rate unification.

Babatunde equally explained that the estimate for recurrent expenditure in the 2024 Budget proposal was N211,884,445,738.94, representing 48.80 per cent of the budget, while the capital expenditure of N222,337,320,199.85 represents 51.20 per cent of the budget.’’

He said that the percentage of the recurrent expenditure estimate was high because it had been designed to capture the monthly wage award of N25,000 to civil servants and N15,000 to pensioners, which increased the state’s wage by an additional N2.8 billion in its first month of payment and was expected to run for six months.