Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun; has attributed the successful implementation of the 2024 budget to increased revenues due to effective exploration of more revenue sources and blockage of leakages in the state’s fiscal system.
The governor made this remark during the Town Hall meeting on the 2025-2027 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and 2025 Budget for Ogun West Senatorial District held at Ilaro on Tuesday.
Represented by his Chief Economic Adviser and Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Dapo Okubadejo, the governor disclosed that the 2024 budget had already achieved 80 percent implementation, ascribing the success to the various reforms embarked by the state government.
He said: “Putting the record straight, before our emergence in 2019, budget implementation was below 40 percent but the present administration has moved it up to an average of 75 percent.
“Implementation of the 2024 budget is 80 percent and that of last year was also 80 percent. We had put in place various mechanisms for the execution of the budget and these mechanisms are in line with our pillars of development. We also put in place delivery mechanism and strategies to ensure the variant of most of the budget.
“Also, we have embarked upon a lot of reforms to block leakages, improve efficiency of service delivery. We also looked at other revenue areas; we have embarked on massive digitalization to enhance our revenue in those areas without necessarily overtaxing our people”, he added
Abiodun explained that his administration leveraged on the competitive and comparative advantages of the State and established few ministries and agencies that helped in boosting the state revenue.
The governor further explained that the introduction of Medium Revenue Strategies, Medium Term Expenditure Framework reforms in the payment for seamless operations to block leakages as well as regular meetings to monitor all reforms, were parts of measures aimed at boosting the state’s revenue.
He pointed out that infrastructure development, like the cargo airport and the flagging off of the Inland Dry Port and other projects, were being prioritized in his administration’s drive to attract more investors to the state.
Abiodun maintained that Ogun West Senatorial District had benefited from the over 600 kilometres of road constructed by his administration in the last five years, listing some of the them as including the GRA road at Ota, Ilaro-Owode, Atan-Lusada-Agbara, Oke-Irija-Ilobi, among others.
The governor noted that Ogun West was not only the home of industries, but the food basket of the state.
He described the meeting as a critical engagement aimed at providing opportunities for the people to make known their demands and aspirations as feedbacks are not only important to the MTEF, but also the 2025 budget.
Also speaking, the Commissioner for Budget Planning, Mr. Olaolu Olabimtan, noted the invaluable contributions to the previous budgets by the people of the State, saying the people’s inputs would go a long way in putting together the 2025 budget.
The Olu of Ilaro and Chairman of Ogun State Council of Obas, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle, who was represented by the Onimeko of Imeko, Oba Benjamin Olanite, called for the reconstruction of more roads in the area to improve the economic activities of the people.
