Sunday, January 17, 2021 / 9:12 PM /Ottoabasi Abasiekong and Ayomide Oguntoye for WebTV / Header Image Credit: WebTV

On Thursday January 15, 2021 the LagosState Economic Team held a facts-behind-the-figures session with local andinternational media on its 2021 budget tagged "Budget of Rekindled Hope".

In his opening remarks Mr. GbengaOmotosho, Commissioner for Information and Strategy, described Lagos as a stateof resilience that amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the #ENDSARS protests, wasable to use the twin events as a springboard to push its development agendaforward.

The Commissioner for Economic Planning andBudget, Mr. Sam Egube, said the forum was an opportunity to explain how theLagos state government was rethinking the state's economy and  aligning itwith the state's policy agenda called T.H.E.M.E.

He informed the media practitioners thatthe Lagos state government had a bespoke mechanism in monitoring and evaluatingthe performance and impact of its budgets.

Overview of 2020 

According to the Economic Planning andBudget Commissioner due to the exigencies of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020budget was revised downward by 21% from N1.169trn to N920.5bn.

He said there was a 10% reduction inrecurrent expenditure and a 24% reduction in capital expenditure.

Speaking further he said total revenue for2020 was revised to N812.47bn with a deficit financing of N108bn.

The recurrent and capital expenditureswere N413.41bn and N507.06bn, respectively, with capital to recurrent ratio of55% to 45%.

Despite the challenges of the COVID-19pandemic and the escalation of violence from the #ENDSARS protests, Egube washappy to report that Lagos state achieved a revenue performance of 93%, whilethe total capital expenditure and recurrent expenditure performed at 80% and86% respectively.

He gave highlights on the sectoralperformance which include;

Finance

A restructuring of the existing internalloans from an interest rate of 20% to 12%, and single digit interest rates insome cases, resulting in a cost savings of about N12bn.

Health

In the health sector for 2020 a total sumof N97.26bn, was budgeted to cater for the construction, refurbishment andequipping of healthcare facilities across the State.

An additional N20bn COVID-19 interventionfund was provided for the health sector to mitigate the risks of coronavirus inthe state.

Education

• The Lagos state government according to the Economic Planning and Budget Commissioner accomplished some of the following strides in Education;

Construction andrehabilitation of over 589 classrooms and 1,568-bed hostels in the secondary and primary schools.

• Approval of E-learning infrastructure for state-owned tertiary institutions( 1^st State in Nigeria to achieve this in the country).
• The launch of the EKO Excel Program to improve learning outcomes for the children.
• Constant training of teacher with the aid of technology.

Transportationand Infrastructure

• Work commenced on resolving 60 identified gridlock points across the state while also converting 6-critical junctions and roundabouts around Ikotun, Opebi and Lekki-Epe Expressway to synchronized signalization to increase vehicular capacity.
• The State also finalized the financing for the Red Line Railway project under a long-term financing structure at a single-digit interest rate. While it is also focused on completing the 27km Blue line from Okoko to Marina.

Agriculture and Food Security

In 2020 according to Egube the Lagos state governmentembarked on the following areas of  interventions to increase foodsecurity;

• Completion of a Rice Mill at Imota
• Establishment of the Lagos Agripreneurship Program at Avia-Igborosun, Badagry to train 400 youths in various Agricultural enterprises

Year 2021 Budget

Explaining the details of 2021 budget, Egube said itwas tagged "Rekindled Hope" to reflect the determination to rise above thechallenges that had affected the state's development indices in the past elevenmonths.

He said the budget was keenly focused onyouth development and human capital development as well as job creation. Headded that the budget strengthened the determination of the citizens and thegovernment to make Lagos State a smart city with modern infrastructure whilecreating additional jobs.  

The 2021 budget according to him had tenkey objectives which included the following;

• Continued aggressive development and maintenance of infrastructure the state
• Creation of employment and the enhancement of food security
• Improvement of civic participation, inclusion and cooperation in governance
• Intentional investment in human capital development i.e education and healthcare.
• The strategic deployment of functional technology in public services
• Improving the State's capacity to collect due revenue as efficiently as possible
• The attraction of investments through Public-Private Partnerships.
• The improvement of the State's Healthcare systems, the Environment, as well as public spaces.
• Improving Youth Engagement, Participation and Empowerment
• The Rebuilding of Lagos following the #ENDSARS protest

Themedia session featured a Q&A session with questions, observations andcomments around the Blue and Red Line rail projects, the need for Lagos topublish its own GDP report working with the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS), scaling the road infrastructure to cover the entire state, the status ofthe fourth mainland bridge, traffic management measures, health sectorpreparedness in 2021 and the need to leverage PPP funding options, prospectsfor Lagos planning its vaccine roll-out strategy as the epicenter of COVID -19, prospects for raising Pandemic bonds and the Downside risks for achieving thebudget.

Commissionerfor Finance Dr. Rabiu Olowo speaking on the N193bn debt said about N100bn wouldbe raised through the capital market, while N52bn was to be sourced externallyand N41bn would be funded locally.

Hesaid Lagos state would continue to explore all forms of financing including asuggested "Pandemic Bond" to finance its infrastructure and related projectsthat could spur economic growth.

Providingclarifications to the fourth mainland bridge project, Engr. Aramide Adeyoye,Special Adviser to the Governor on Works and Infrastructure restated thecommitment of the Lagos state government to transparently managing the projectwhich is 38km, and has engaged all stakeholders extensively.

TheCommissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, said the state was exploring arobust approach to rolling out vaccines and effectively monitoring the COVID-19pandemic and other related diseases, with a view to upgrading all itshealthcare centres.

ProfessorAbayomi said the state had a good model of Public-Private Partnership (PPP)where it plays the role of the 'regulator' while providing an enablingenvironment for private sector participation in the sector.

Inresponse to the issues of the "Apapa Gridlock", Dr. Frederic Oladeinde, theCommissioner for Transportation, said that Lagos was well-placed to manage thesituation because there is a clear strategy and a developed call up system forall trucks that would be allowed into designated trailer parks.

EducationCommissioner, Mrs. Folashade Adefisayo, in her remarks said the state wasworking assiduously to integrate education and technology to boost humancapital in the state.

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