Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has presented a budget of N138,232,946,670 for the 2017 fiscal year before the state House of Assembly for consideration.

The estimate which was presented at the plenary on Wednesday has recurrent expenditure of N75,823,942,160 and capital expenditure of N62,409,004,510.

It also has the recurrent revenue of N105,090,868,130 and capital receipts of N33,142,078,540.

Presenting the budget, tagged 'Budget of Recovery', on behalf of the governor, the Permanent Secretary, Budget and Economic Planning, Mr Segun Olorunsogo, said, the economic sector of the budget, includingagriculture, rural development, rural and urban electrification, commerce, industry, finance and transportation will gulp N24,911,168,470 of the total budget.

He also said that the social service sector, including education, health, information and culture, youths, sports and social development will gulp N11,168,089,260 of the budget.

The regional planning and environmental development sector, which includes water resources, environmental sanitation, housing, town planning, according to him, will gulp N5,315,221,210 while general administration and other services, will gulp N21,014,525,570.

According to him, the main focus of the budget will include "provision of enabling environment that will ensure increase in food production."

"It focuses on consolidation of social infrastructure that will expand the economic and industrial base of the state; creation of conducive, productive, and active socio-economic environment that ensures job creation and empowerment of youths and women.

"It will also focus on development of opportunities for wealth creation through tourism and culture; improving basic education infrastructure that promotes functional education and enhancement of the capacity of teachers at all levels,” he said.

He said, in the course of implementing the budget, new revenue sources would be pursued, while the existing mechanism of internal revenue generation would be improved on.

Adding that the government was determined to leverage on the revenue generating potentials of both formal and informal sectors, he said the government would ensure non-reliance on the revenue from the federal allocation.

He also said the government would ensure blockage of leakages in revenue collection through effective monitoring of collectors by all officials in charge of such collections.

Receiving the budget, the Speaker, Honourable Najeem Salaam, said the estimate would be properly scrutinised to be in line with the needs of the state and its people and do justice to all the budget heads.

Commending the administration of Aregbesola for working hard in formulating policies and programmes that would improve the living standard of the people, Salam said the Assembly would not be the cog in wheel of progress of the state.

The speaker, who stressed that the presentation of the budget has been taken as first reading, noted that, the estimate would be committed to the Committee on Finance and Appropriation for consideration

Daily Trust