Governor Akinwunmi Ambode

Kazeem Ugbodaga

Roads and education will attract the highest spending for this year, going by the 2016 budget signed by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State. This was released as the state government officially released a partial breakdown of the 2016 budget.

At the breakdown of the budget presented by the Commission for Economic Planning and Budget, Akinyemi Ashade at the State House, Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria on Monday, Ambode will spend N89.9 billion on the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of roads and public buildings.

The breakdown also showed that N86 billion has been earmarked for education in a bid to tackle onerous decay and revamp the ailing sector.

According to Ashade, part of the N89.9 billion to be expended on roads and infrastructure would take care of advancing the 10-lane Lagos-Badagry Expressway and rehabilitation on other roads spread across the state that had been provided for in the budget.

“To solve the perennial traffic gridlock in Ajah, Abule Egba and Pen Cinema, Agege, we have commenced the construction of fly-overs at two out of the three locations. Light-up Lagos Project will continue through provision, rehabilitation and maintenance of street light facilities in some of our roads and schools,” he said.

On education, he said the N86 billion earmarked for the sector would cover the state’s flagship programmes, including the N2 billion A-Meal-a-Day project, Ibile Tablets for secondary schools, inclusive of the state’s initiative on the development of e-curriculum, among others.

“We will continue the rehabilitation and upgrading of public school buildings/facilities, including enhanced access to basic instructional materials/free textbooks for public schools. We shall continue to promote reading culture among our people and hence the provision of public school libraries and development of e-libraries have become necessary,” he said.

In the budget, government will spend N48.9 billion on transportation, which include the completion of the Blue Rail Line and expansion of the BRT Corridor, decongest the state, among others.

The agricultural sector will gulp N6.6 billion; Tourism, N2.2 billion, while N6.2 billion has been reserved for the ongoing development of the Lekki Free Zone and Industrial Park at Imota and other areas.

Wealth and employment creation will receive a boost with N25 billion earmarked for the state’s Employment Trust Scheme for the next four years, while a seed fund of N3.7 billion has been provided for this year for the scheme.

While environment will gulp N27 billion, the water sector will take N17 billion to provide potable water for the populace, as Housing has N25.3 billion earmarked for it. The health sector will gulp N46.9 billion; women affairs, N1.82 billion, Youth and Social Development, N1.4 billion. Also, N10 billion has been earmarked for governance; payment of pension will gulp N6.5 billion, among others.