Ondo Assembly passes N698.66 billion 2025 budget

Ondo State House of Assembly, yesterday, passed the N698.66 billion budget of the state for the 2025 fiscal year. The budget, passed by the House, is N43.43 billion above the N655.23 billion presented to it by the state governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, on December 10, 2024.

A breakdown of the budget, christened the “Budget of Recovery,” indicates that N433.622 billion was allocated for capital expenditure, representing 62.06 per cent of the total budget, while N265.037 billion was earmarked for recurrent expenditure, which is 47.94 per cent.

The estimates, submitted by Aiyedatiwa, had allocated N248.923 billion, representing 37.99 per cent, to recurrent expenditure, while N406.307 billion, representing 62.01 per cent, was earmarked for capital expenditure.

Chairman, House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Oluwole Ogunmolasuyi, said the budget increase was necessitated after interactions with Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) during the budget defence.

Ogunmolasuyi added that the committee noted that the hyper-inflationary trend had affected, to some extent, the prevailing cost projections highlighted in the estimates presented.

He, therefore, urged the state government to take all necessary steps to ensure that the Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR) target was realised. Ogunmolasuyi also said that the state’s Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget and the Ministry of Finance, in conjunction with Ondo State Internal Revenue Service (ODIRS), should ensure that the desire of the government to boost IGR was pursued in line with the dictates of the extant laws.

Speaker of the Assembly, Olamide Oladiji, who spoke on the budget, said that the brand new Ondo State was guaranteed by the Lucky Aiyedatiwa-led administration.

Oladiji said that the Assembly would key into the governor’s vision to move the state forward. Meanwhile, the House has passed a bill to amend the status of the Ondo State University of Medical Sciences, Ondo, to the University of Medical Sciences, Ondo.

Similarly, the anti-land grabbing bill sponsored by MoyinolorunOgunwumiju was passed by the House. However, the House has adjourned plenary sitting to January 7, 2025.