Hardship: We Will Lessen Burden Of Our People, Says Makinde

Oyo State governor Seyi Makinde has declared that his government has taken several actions to lessen the burden on the residents of the state amid the economic challenges facing the people.

The governor stated this at the stakeholders’ consultative meeting on the 2025 Budget and the Oyo State Agenda 2040 unveiling at the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, Ibadan.

He noted that through these actions and his administration’s engagements with residents of the state, which enabled them to have input in the state’s budgets, the economic landscape of the state had changed drastically over the last five years.

He equally unveiled the Agenda 2040 for Oyo State and the Five Years Medium Term Development Plan 2023-2027, which were driven by the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, with the support of DFID/PERL, DAWN Commission, UNICEF and the University of Ibadan Ventures Limited (Consultancy Service Unit).

He maintained that with the agenda, his administration’s strategy was to focus on avenues that can add value and create a conducive environment for creating decent jobs for the people.

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According to the governor, the state government has had to grapple with the fallouts of the removal of fuel subsidies and the peg on the naira to dollar exchange rate, a development that led to it taking conscious actions to mitigate the hardship facing the people.

Makinde, who maintained that the 2024 budget had been implemented up to 53 per cent, said he was looking forward to 90 per cent implementation by the end of the year.

He said: “This is the first in the consultative and town hall meetings that will happen in preparation for the 2025 budget. This is the sixth series we have held since we assumed office in 2019.

“We are not just engaging and talking. When we came in, our budget performance was around 35 per cent. But because our stakeholders have taken ownership of this process, we take feedback from what you are telling us while you take ownership of this and monitor its implementation, we have raised that bar.”