Yesterday, Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State presented a budget tagged “Budget of Optimisation” to the state House of Assembly for 2016. Amosun spoke of the budget as one that will help to minimize costs and maximize capacity to generate revenue.
The budget of N200.3 billion is N10billion (4.79 per cent) less than the 2015 budget of N210.35billion. A large portion of the budget will be raised from Internally Generated Revenue of N108billion (53.93%), Federation Account of N42billion (29.97per cent), External Loans of N40.27billion (20.11 per cent) and Grants of N10billion, accounting for 4.99%.
Amosun stated “We placed great emphasis on capital expenditure during our first term, in line with our development objectives. Our emphasis has now shifted a little and the budget this year is balanced between capital and recurrent expenditure.”
Governor Amosun also dissociated himself from the proposed plans by state governors to slash the N18, 000 minimum currently paid to workers across the country.
He said, ““I am not part of any move to say we can’t pay 18, 000 minimum wage to our workers and in any case, what we did when we came in in August 2011, I probably was the only person that didn’t only limit it to N18, 000 but N18, 250 or so,” the governor said. “If I didn’t then, the day we have enough money and we generate enough revenue, I will even move mine to N20, 000 or even N25, 000.”
“But for now, the N18, 250 we are paying, I will not subscribe to anybody saying we should reduce it or that they can’t pay, I am not part of those that said that. For me, we should continue to struggle to pay the minimum wage of 18, 000 Naira.
“For us in Ogun State, we pay N18, 250 and I have said it several times that there is no state that pays higher, we pay the highest in Ogun State.”
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