Barely a day after state lawmakers passed the N310.4 billion state budget, Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde signed it into law on Friday.
The "Budget of Sustainable Development" was signed on Friday in Saki Town, Oke-Ogun zone, at the Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency's headquarters.
According to Prime9jaOnline, the state House of Assembly cleared the N310.4 billion 2023 Appropriations Bill on Thursday after carefully examining each article of the budgetary plan.
The approved budget is almost N432.5 million greater than the first N310 billion proposal that Makinde on November 3 delivered to the legislators.
The governor praised the state legislature's support and cooperation for the bill's prompt approval while approving it.
According to Makinde, the money would help the state complete some of its current initiatives.
He added: “Some of the projects we started would be completed in 2023.
“So, this is a budget that has N155.7 billion for recurrent expenditure and N154.8 billion for capital expenditure.
“You will notice that recurrent is slightly higher than the capital expenditure and this is because we are going into a transitional period.”
Makinde said that his administration “has increased the internally generated revenue to over N3.8 billion.
“When we talk about budget performance, since we came in, we have always performed well above 50 per cent.
“The signing of this budget in Saki is a testimony to the fact that in Oyo State, our economy across all our zones, is indeed an integrated economy,” he said.
In his remarks, the state Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Prof. Misbau Babatunde, described the 2023 budget as “an inclusive one”, adding that the whole state made their inputs into it.
Babatunde said: “We collated every input together and came up with a conclusion.
“We did not just allocate figures for the budget, it was a rigorous project that science, data and logic guided.
“The figure of the budget we are signing today is what will improve the welfare of the good people of Oyo State.”
Prime9jaOnline recalls that the approved budget comprises a capital expenditure of N154.8 billion and a recurrent expenditure of N155.7 billion.
Prior to the approval, the House Committee on Public Accounts, Finance and Appropriation had presented its report on the state’s 2023 Appropriation Bill to the lawmakers, which was also adopted.
The third reading, which was read at the plenary by the Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Hon. Mustapha Akeem, representing Kajola Constituency, took a careful clause-by-clause consideration of the bill by the lawmakers.
The lawmakers, while deliberating on the proposed budget, suggested certain amendments and concluded that the sum of N154.5 billion be changed and amended to N154.8 billion as final amendment for capital expenditure.
Prime9jaOnline reports that high points of the budget, as allocated, were: Office of the Governor (N400 million); Oyo State Investment, Public and Private Partnership (N800 million); and Oyo State House of Assembly (N8 million).
Others include Bureau of Public Procurement (N100 million) and Rural Electrification Board (N64 million).