Fayose, Ekiti State and his Budget of ‘Higher heights’

Fayose

Governor Ayodele Fayose has stellar ideas of attracting media attention with his frequent public appearances as he has rocked a military outfit – camouflage cap, trousers and black shirt with black snickers to match while presenting his state’s 2017 budget of ‘Higher Heights’ before the House of Assembly in Ado Ekiti.

‎The budget, ‎which is 33 percent higher than the 2016 Budget of N70.5 billion, was tagged “Budget of Higher Height.” The governor also announced that he would go to the mountain to pray on December 14 and return on December 21 with predictions for Nigeria. He  noted that almost all his predictions for 2016 had come to pass.

Appraising the 2016 Budget, Gov. Fayose said the state only recorded 89% performance due to unfavorable economic climate in the country and which negatively affected the state government.The governor explained that the increment was due to the economic recession and the high exchange rate of the naira to the US dollar.

However, despite the challenges faced by the government in getting finances for the 2016 Budget, Fayose noted that a lot of pro‎jects were still executed or started. ‎On the highlights of the 2017 Budget, Governor Fayose said it would focus on the completion of critical projects vital to the administration’s Six Cardinal Programme.‎ He listed them to include the construction of the Adunni Olayinka Women Centre, completion of the second phase of the Ikere Road dualisation, dualisation of roads in Efon, Ikole, Omuo among others.

He also mentioned the take off of the state’s Social Security Scheme whereby 10,000 people were paid N5,000 stipend monthly.

He also said attention would be paid to improving the internally-generated revenue of the state and to curtail extra-budgetary spendings.

For the 2017 Budget estimates, the Recurrent Expenditure is ‎N55.02 billion which is 59 percent of the budget, while ‎Capital Expenditure is N38.42 billion or 41 percent of the estimates.

He stated that “The performance of the budget is a reflection of the state of the Nigerian economy. It must be noted that Ekiti State is not immune to the shocks and depression of the national socio-economic scene. It is no longer news that the economy of the nation is in trauma and this had impacted negatively on the finances of the state.

Out of th‎e Capital Expenditure, the Economic Sector will have N17.9 billion which is 19 percent, Administrative Sector ‎gets N11.5 billion or 12 percent, Social Sector N7.3 billion or 8 percent. Environmental Sector is N1.5bn or 2 percent.

In his speech, the Speaker, Ekiti State House of Assembly, Kola Oluwawole lauded the governor for his prudent management of the state’s resources.

He gave the assurance that the lawmakers would give speedy consideration to the document.

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