Sanwo-Olu prioritises tourism in N3trn 2025 budget

The tourism and creative sector is about to take a huge leap forward in Lagos State as the sector with other key economic areas will gulp a chunk in the state’s expenditures in the 2025 fiscal year.

This followed the presentation of the Lagos State’s 2025 budget by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to the State House of Assembly on Thursday, November 21, 2024.

Sanwo-Olu proposed a total of N3.005 trillion budget estimates, earmarking a huge capital investment of N908.7 billion to the economic affairs sector – a cluster of key MDAs, comprising tourism and creative arts, agriculture, transportation, works and infrastructure, industry and investments, wealth creation and employment, energy and mineral resources, waterfront infrastructure, and commerce.

The 2025 budget, christened “Budget of Sustainability”, represents a 32.5 per cent increase over the current year budget, totalling N2.3 trillion.

The increment, Sanwo-Olu said, reflected the growing citizens’ demands for sustainable interventions in programmes and projects that would further raise productivity and energise economic growth in Lagos State.

In response to citizens’ demands, the governor said the proposed budget was structured to ensure stability, stewardship, and social equity around five key pillars, including infrastructure sustainability, economic diversification, social inclusion and human capital development, environmental sustainability, governance, and institutional reforms.

He noted that sustaining investment in infrastructure in key areas of priority would enable Lagos State to build up momentum for more growth, stressing that his administration’s infrastructural drive would further get a boost in the coming fiscal year.

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Sanwo-Olu disclosed that the government had completed 30 road projects, including bridges, across the state, which had all been scheduled for commissioning from the beginning of next month.

The 2025 budget proposal is made up of recurrent expenditure of N1.239 trillion, representing 41 per cent of the total budget, and a capital expenditure of N1.766 trillion, which represents 59 per cent of the budget.

Sanwo-Olu stated that the state would be financing the budget through a combination of a projected revenue inflow of N2.597 trillion, and a deficit financing of N408.9 billion.

The revenue sources, he said, include Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) projected to be N1.971 trillion, and federal transfers of N626.1 billion.

The governor said the budget’s deficit would be financed through external and internal loans and the issuance of bonds, which, he said, would be within the state’s fiscal sustainability parameters.

Highlighting the sectoral allocation in the 2025 budget, Sanwo-Olu said the Lagos State Government will be spending N233.176 billion on the environment, N204.005 billion on health, N208.376 billion on education, N124.073 billion on security, safety and public order, while social protection will gulp N47.077 billion.

Sanwo-Olu described the performance of the current year’s budget as “excellent”, noting that the 2024 budget had been implemented to the tune of N1.423 trillion, representing 84 per cent performance as of the end of the third quarter.

While presenting the 2025 budget, Sanwo-Olu urged the lawmakers to play their part in ensuring thorough scrutiny of the proposal, just as he called for its speedy passage.

The Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, assured the governor of thorough legislative work on the 2025 budget, noting that the House would ensure the proposed spending reflected the yearnings of Lagosians.

The Star