Lagos Assembly passes N1.163trn 2021 appropriation bill

The Lagos State House of Assembly has passed the 2021 Appropriation Bill of N1.163 trillion into law.

The budget passage came after weeks of deliberations, interactions and defence of the budget proposal by the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the state before the standing committees of the House and ratified by the Joint Committee on Economic Planning and Budget and Finance.

Report of the appropriation was presented during plenary by the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Economic Planning and Budget and Finance, Hon. Gbolahan Yishawu (Eti Osa 2).

A total of N460,587,43,741 was approved as recurrent expenditure from the Consolidated Revenue Fund and N702,935,416,976 was approved as capital expenditure from Development Revenue Fund.

A sum of N1,163,522,460,717 was approved as the 2021 Budget of the state.

The Speaker, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa specifically said that it was agreed by the lawmakers during parliamentary sessions that the Youth Empowerment Scheme of the Ministry of Agric, O’YES was not yielding the desired results.

Obasa said that same goes for the Coconut Agency, which was recommended for scrapping by the Joint Committee and recommended to be a parastatal under the Ministry of Agric.

He also said that the fund for scholarship awards had to be reduced as recommended by the committee since the agency could not access the fund voted for them in the 2020 budget.

The sectoral allocations were eventually read by Obasa to the lawmakers, who approved them through voice votes before the budget was eventually passed into law through a voice vote.

The speaker then thanked all the lawmakers and members of the press for their coverage for the assembly in the year.

Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu had on Monday, November 9, 2020, presented budget estimates of N1.155 trillion to the State House of Assembly for approval for the 2021 fiscal year.