Sanwo-Olu seeks N250bn loan, reorders Ambode’s 2019 budget

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos state has re-ordered the 2019 Budget of the state with a letter to the State Assembly seeking a loan of N250 Billion.

According to the letter by Sanwo-Olu, the 2019 Budget proposed by ex-Gov. Akinwumi Ambode could no longer be funded hence the need for its re-ordering and sourcing for more funds.

The governor’s letter was read on the floor of the House during plenary on Tuesday by the Clerk to the Assembly, Mr Sani Azeez.

According to the letter, the loan was broken down as: a fixed rate bond of N100 billion from the capital market and an internal loan of N150 billion.

The governor explained that the budgetary provisions of recurrent and capital budget of ministries, departments and agencies were not likely to be utilized before the end of the year, saying that N34.050 billion could be re-ordered.

In the letter, the governor stated that his administration was constrained by the lack of revenue for the remaining months of the year and that it would not be in a position to propose a supplementary budget, which informed the recourse to re-ordering 2019 budget.

He said the budget as at 31st August, 2019 had a 71 per cent overall performance, which was below the set target of 100 per cent.

“Further analysis shows that the recurrent expenditure stood at 80 per cent while capital expenditure was at 64 per cent performance, portending a 49:51 capital/recurrent ratio against the target of 55:45.

“It should be noted that some of the major MDAs that are supposed to implement the capital expenditure are performing below expectation, while others have almost exhausted their budgetary provisions,” Sanwo-Olu explained in the letter.

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According to the governor, all other arms of government should cooperate with him by ensuring that they improve on spending in priority areas, adding that the administration was desirous of keeping its electoral promises to the citizens and had resolved to take advantage of clement weather condition in the latter part of the year to complete various projects.

The projects, he said would benefit from the re-ordering were: completion of Lagos-Badagry express road; Agege Pen Cinema overhead bridge; Agric-Isawo road; Bola Ahmed Tinubu-Igbogbo road; rehabilitation of schools; initiate and complete smart city project and zero tolerance for portholes, among others.

Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa subsequently committed the governor’s request to the joint committees on Finance and Budget and Economic Planning.

They are to report back to the House on Monday.