Lagos factors in APC meal-a-day promise in N665bn 2016 budget

Parents, who have their children in public primary schools in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic nerve centre, will have some level of the burden of feeding their wards taken off their shoulders, as the state government begins the implementation of the Meal-a-Day programme of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from  2016.

The implementation of the programme is expected to improve the daily nutrition of school children, attract more children to school and create an economy of its own, as it will throw up opportunities for job creation, income generation and  poverty alleviation.

The cost of this has been factored into the state 2016 budget size N662.588 billion which was presented to the Lagos State House of Assembly by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, on Thursday, tagged “the peoples’ budget”. According to Ambode, Lagos will bear 40 percent cost of implementing the meal-a-day programme, while the Federal Government will take up the balance of 60 percent.

The N662.588 billion budget, consisting of N383,678 billion (58%) capital expenditure and N278,909 billion (42%) recurrent expenditure, represents an increase of 26 percent over those of 2014 and 2015 respectively, which stood at N489.6 billion apiece. The increase is key to enabling the government deal with the issue insecurity, traffic gridlock and to further deepen physical and social infrastructural development, all of which have thrown up new challenges, different from what obtained in the state some months back.

A look into the budget shows a total revenue estimate of N542.873 billion, leaving a balance of N119.714 billion which the governor said will be funded through deficit financing of 0.41% of the state GDP, based on the 2016 budget alone, and a cumulative debt to GDP ratio of about 3 percent.

“The expansionary vision of our previous and current budgets, Medium Term Economic Framework (MTEF) and Lagos State Development Plan 2012-2025 require sustainable budget deficit financing and good debt management to aid implementation.

“Notwithstanding, we have resolved to improve on our revenue to GDP ratio which is about 2% presently, by broadening the revenue base of the state and bring more citizens into the tax net, through automation of tax assessment, collection and administration.  In future, an improved revenue base will ensure reduction in our deficit financing,” Ambode explained at the budget presentation.

Sectoral allocations of the budget show as follows:  general public services,  N120,508,571,598 (18.19%); public order and safety, N28,559,021,841 (4.31%); economic affairs, N211,043,408,183 (31.85%);  environment, N53,043,599,505 (8.01%); housing and community amenities, N62,713,091,867 (9.46%); health, N64,677,679,096 (9.76%); recreation, culture and religion, N4,636,917,054, (0.70%); education N113,379,337,664, (17.11%); while social protection is allocated N4,025,980,116 representing 0.61% of the total budget.

According to the governor, the full implementation of the budget will promote massive investment in security, transport/traffic management, physical and social infrastructural development and enhance job creation.

“We plan to use the 2016 budget to strategically build new infrastructure, while we continue to maintain existing ones.  Wealth and employment creation will receive a lot of attention as we commence the implementation of the Employment Trust Scheme which will set aside N25 billion over a 4 year period for job creation,” said Ambode.

JOSHUA BASSEY