Lagos Assembly passes N1.155tr 2021 appropriation bill into law

The Lagos State House of Assembly, yesterday, passed the N1.155 trillion 2021 Appropriation Bill, which Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu tagged: Budget of Rekindled Hope into law.

Its passage came after weeks of deliberations, interactions and budget defence by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) before the House’ standing committees and ratified by the Joint Committee on Economic Planning, Budget and Finance.

Chairman, Joint Committee on Economic Planning and Budget and Finance, who represents Eti Osa Constituency II, Gbolahan Yishawu, presented the report during the plenary yesterday.

The Assembly approved N460.5b as recurrent expenditure from the Consolidated Revenue Fund and N703b as capital expenditure from Development Revenue Fund.

Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, said the lawmakers resolved that the Youth Empowerment Scheme (O’YES) of the Ministry of Agriculture was not yielding the desired results.

He said the same obtained at the Coconut Agency, which Joint Committee recommended for scrapping and placed under the Ministry of Agriculture.

Obasa also said the funds for scholarship awards had to be reduced as recommended by the committee since the agency could not access the funds voted for it in the 2020 budget.

He read the sectorial allocations to the lawmakers, who approved them through voice votes before the budget was passed into law through a voice vote.

Governor Sanwo-Olu had on Monday, November 9, 2020 presented budget estimates of N1.155 trillion to the lawmakers for approval for the 2021 fiscal year. The budget estimates is higher than the revised 2020 budget of N920.5b due to challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2021 appropriation bill is higher than the revised 2020 budget with N234.5b and lesser than the initial 2020 budget of N1.68tr with N53.5b.

Besides, the Assembly also swore in Saheed Wasiu Obafemi, who won the December 5, 2020 bye-election of Kosofe Constituency II under the All Progressives Congress (APC) following the death of Tunde Braimoh in July 2020.

Head, Legal Department of the Assembly administered oaths of allegiance and membership on Obafemi. While congratulating the new member of the House, Obasa urged him to synergise with other members of the House, urging him to clarify from the office of the Speaker or the Clerk on any issues.