Business and economic experts have commended the Lagos State Government on the 78 per cent of the 2023 budget as of the end of September.
The experts also expressed the hope that the 2024 appropriation bill, when passed, would meet the expectations of residents of the state.
They gave the commendation recently at a round table organised by the Economic Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget to review the state’s economy in the year 2023 and the outlook for the year 2024, held at the Protea Hotel Select, Central Business District, Ikeja.
The Chief Executive of Economic Associates, Dr Ayo Teriba, was quoted in a statement on Tuesday as saying that Lagos had achieved a 78 per cent performance of its 2023 budget, which is more than the 75 per cent performance expected by stakeholders.
“As of September this year, they have achieved 78 per cent performance of the budget. September is the end of the third quarter, so, you should have achieved 75 per cent, but Lagos did 78, which is good. This makes the 2024 appropriation bill presented by Mr Governor to the state House of Assembly credible,” Teriba was quoted to have said.
He urged the state government through the Economic Intelligence Department to optimise and make collections of its assets for fee-rent-based revenue generation to enhance the 2024 budget when passed by the House.
President of the Nigerian Economic Society, Prof. Adeola Adenikinju, also commended the state government for the indicator shown in the proposed bill that almost half of the spending is coming from Internally Generated Revenue.
Adenikinju said, “The ratio between the capital budgets being significantly higher than the recurrent is very good,” adding that “very few states in the country have that kind of action.”
In his presentation, a professor of Economics at the University of Lagos, Dr Femi Sabiu, charged the state government to set its priorities right and focus on realistic sectors, citing the agricultural sector as one the government needs to pay more attention to.