Education gets ₦199bn as Sanwo-Olu presents ₦2.2trn 2024 budget to Assembly

According to him, the budget size is made up of recurrent expenditure of ₦1.02 trillion (45 per cent) and capital expenditure of ₦1.2 trillion (55 per cent).

“The ‘Budget of Renewal’ has a total size of ₦2.246 trillion, comprising revenue of ₦1.848 trillion and deficit financing of ₦398.3 billion.

“The deficit financing shall consist of external and internal loans and bonds, which are well within our fiscal sustainability parameters,’’ the governor said.

The state anticipates internally generated revenue of ₦1.251 trillion and Federal Government allocations of ₦596.629 billion, he added.

“We propose a recurrent expenditure of ₦1.021 trillion, comprising overhead, and personnel costs and recurrent debt servicing,’’ Sanwo-Olu said.

He gave details of total overhead costs of ₦527.782 billion as overhead of ₦304.753 billion, subventions of ₦123 billion, and Dedicated Funds amounting to ₦100 billion.

He added that the personnel cost was ₦319.23 billion, while recurrent debt servicing was proposed at ₦174.94 billion.

“For capital expenditure, we propose ₦1.224 trillion classified as the capital expenditure of ₦856.387 billion and repayments of ₦367.893 billion,’’ the governor said.

Giving highlights of sectoral allocations, Sanwo-Olu said ₦535 billion was budgeted for economic affairs; ₦94 billion for environment; and ₦156 billion for health.

Education got ₦199 billion; social protection got ₦50 billion, while public order and safety got ₦84 billion, he added.

“Mr Speaker, honourable members of the House, better times are coming. We have gone through some very difficult times; while the pain is temporary, the dividends of the necessary investments we are making will be here to stay.

“We are working closely with the Federal Government to ramp up relief measures to help the people of Lagos State to alleviate the pains of the fuel subsidy removal and the impact of high inflation.

“We are especially concerned about transportation and food costs, and in 2024, we will be keying into the targeted food security initiatives of the Federal Government.

“For transportation, we are fully on board with the Federal Government’s CNG-powered buses initiative, which will deliver sizable numbers of the buses to each state for public transportation,’’ Sanwo-Olu said.