Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, said on Wednesday that his government had taken several actions to lessen the burden of the residents amid economic challenges facing the people.
He said through these actions and his engagements with residents by his administration, which enabled them to have input in the state’s budgets, the economic landscape had changed drastically over the last five years.
The governor also said the 32-kilometre East Wing section of the Ibadan Circular Road, spanning Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to Badeku Village on Ibadan-Ile Ife Road, would be ready in 2025 and would be the first freeway in Nigeria.
The governor stated this at the stakeholders’ consultative meeting on the 2025 Budget and the unveiling of the Oyo State Agenda 2040, held at the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan.
He equally unveiled the Five-Year Medium Term Development Plan 2023-2027, driven by the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, with the support of DFID/PERL, DAWN Commission, United Nations Children’s Fund and the University of Ibadan Ventures Limited (Consultancy Service Unit).
He said with the agenda, his administration’s strategy was to focus on avenues that could add value and create an environment for decent jobs for the people.
Makinde, who maintained that the 2024 Budget had been implemented up to 53 per cent, said he was looking forward to 90 per cent implementation by the end of the year.
“This is the first in the consultative and town hall meetings that will happen in preparation for the 2025 budget. This is the sixth series we have held since we assumed office in 2019.
“We are not just engaging and talking. When we came in, our budget performance used to be around 35 per cent.
“Because our stakeholders have taken ownership of this process, we take feedback from what you are telling us while you take ownership of this, and we monitor its implementation, we have raised that bar,” he said.
The governor added, “You would agree that the economic landscape has changed drastically in the last five years.
“More recently, we are all still grappling with the fallouts of the partial removal of the fuel subsidy and the peg on the Naira to dollar exchange rate. As a sub-national operating within this system, we have taken actions to lessen the burden on our people.
“So, we have come to you again to request your input into the 2025 budget. I have always said to people that we don’t know it all.
“When we come to you, we expect to understand your pains and how best to use the budget to alleviate those pains. As I always say, this is your government and we will always act in your best interest.”
The governor informed the gathering that the state government had invested a lot of money in the Ibadan Circular Road named after former Governor Rashidi Ladoja.
He said this was the reason it planned that the resources should bring economic benefits to the state, by putting in place a corridor for such benefits.
The governor stressed that no matter the challenges, the coming year would see his government driving a hard bargain for development.
He promised to work with the private sector to drive more inclusive agribusiness programmes and youth training and also continue to support smallholder farmers.
The governor added that the support for the Youth Entrepreneurship in Agribusiness Project beneficiaries would soon be ready.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Prof Musbau Babatunde, said the budgets had, over the last five years, turned out well and worked in the interest of the people because of the bottom-up approach to its preparation.
The Chairman of the House of Assembly Committee on Budget, Public Accounts, Finance and Appropriation, Sunkanmi Babalola, assured residents of the state of the readiness of the Assembly to see to the equitable implementation of the budget.
Representatives of development partners, community associations, market groups and other stakeholders who spoke at the event lauded the inclusive approach to budgeting and expressed confidence that the 2025 budget would be people-oriented.
By Ademola Adegbite @PUNCH
