The Oyo state Governor, Seyi Makinde yesterday presented the 2021 budget proposal of N266.6billion to the State House of Assembly with the education sector getting the highest share.
The education sector was allocated a sum of N56.4billion, which represents 21 per cent of the total budget estimate thereby surpassing the recommendation of the United Nations Educational Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The governor while presenting the budget declared that his government will remain bullish in its determination to develop the state.
He stated that even though the government was able to grow the state’s Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR) geometrically in the last one year, recording a 26.4 per cent year-on-year increase in IGR, it will not rest on its oars in its drive to take the state off its total dependence on federal allocation.
Makinde added that his administration plans to increase the state’s IGR to N102,824,207,213.46 in the year 2021 up from the current N25.6 billion.
He said this will be achieved by widening the tax net, bringing more tax payers into the system without necessarily increasing taxes on the people.
According to him, “We remained bullish in our approach to developing Oyo State. Let me share one of our biggest wins in the last year. You will recall that in my 2020 budget presentation, I had stated that from January 2020, we will be recording a monthly Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of N3 billion.
“I am happy to report to you that despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy, we were just less than N200 million shy of our target monthly. As at September 2020, we had recorded an IGR of N25.6 billion. And using the half-year figures, that represented a 26.4 per cent increase in IGR year on year.
“Permit me to share some of our other wins from the 2020 fiscal year. You may recall, Mr. Speaker Sir, that one of the issues I highlighted that has been facing our state’s budget is underperformance. By the end of quarter one, (Q1), 2019 budget performance was 38 percent. We were determined to increase this and had set a mark of 70 percent performance.
“Honourable Members of the House, although we have not yet met up with our target, our budget performance as at now is above average at 50.32 percent. We accomplished this despite the economic shock induced by the pandemic.
“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.”
Governor Makinde explained that the recurrent expenditure in the 2021 Budget Proposal stands at N136,262,990,009.41, while the capital expenditure is N130,381,283,295.63, saying that the larger share of N56.3 Billion or 21 per cent has been earmarked to the education sector, because his administration considers education as the only way out of poverty.
“Mr. Speaker Sir, Distinguished Members of the Oyo State House of Assembly, please permit me, at this point, to present to you the Oyo State 2021 Budget Proposal. The total budgeted sum is N266,644,273,305.04. This sum represents a 53.16 percent increase over the 2020 revised budget. Let me emphasise that the tenets of the Federation’s Fiscal Sustainability Plan (FSP) and other development aspirations were used as a guide in the preparation of the 2021 Budget,” he said.
