Sanwo-Olu unveils N1.15 trillion budget to tackle youth unemployment and security.

The Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, presented the State House of Assembly with a budget of N1.15 trillion for approval for the 2021 fiscal year.

 

“The year 2021 is one of Rekindled Hope in accordance with recent events of global and national proportions especially the coronavirus pandemic, the EndSARS protests, the general feeling of disenchantment in the polity, the socio-economic yearnings of Lagosians for good governance.”

 

The governor stated that the budget’s capital expenditure would amount to N703,272 billion, while recurring expenditure would amount to N451,750 billion. According to him, the Coronavirus pandemic and the #ENDSARS protests have intensified the need to implement the THEMES agenda. He said his top priorities for the 2021 budget would be youth employment, Youth engagement and state security, among others.

 

Sanwo-Olu said he intends to utilize the development efforts of the state by concentrating on sectors with potentials for job creation, such as agriculture, construction, technology and security. He plans to achieve this through collaboration with key players in the IT sector such as Oracle, Microsoft and Google.

 

“We are set to improve the economic conditions and social safety needed for our youth and all hardworking Lagosians to flourish. We are committing resources to sectors that need to grow for our people to become self-reliant and economically empowered.”

 

“Consequently, for the agricultural sector, our food security plan has a cumulative budget of N22.21billion while we are committing a cumulative budgetary provision of N311.43billion to infrastructure.”

 

“To continue to drive our digitisation strategy, we have committed a total of N37.37billion investment in Technology while in the environment and health services we have committed a total of N48.28billion and N111.94billion respectively,” he said.

 

He added that the government will also prioritize the protection of lives and property by increasing the number of Neighbourhood Watch Officers in the states over the next two years.

 

“All these will be achieved through our human development MDAs comprising the Ministries of Education, Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Wealth Creation, (including LSETF) and SDGI. Consequently, the cumulative budgetary provision towards Human capital development effort from these MDAs total’s N148.57billion”

 

“In addition, we will henceforth enforce LASRRA registration as well as our safety and physical planning rules. It has become imperative that we are able to identify every resident of our dear state: the idea of being anonymous in Lagos will no longer be accommodated.”

 

On youth engagement and social work, Sanwo-olu highlighted that there are several opportunities for economic and social growth in Lagos State. He further stated that a comprehensive action plan to address the growing increase in substance abuse among the youth population would soon be unveiled.

 

“This Government has, therefore, made its prerogative to increase its financial commitment to youth mentoring, mental health support, and substance abuse rehabilitation.”

 

“Our approach will entail a robust communication strategy that will highlight government’s projects and initiatives in a format that is easy to digest by our youths: our intention is to cultivate their trust and get them to embrace participatory governance.”

 

While presenting the 2021 Appropriation Bill, the Governor also announced the plan to annul the Public Office Holder (Payment of Pension Law 2007), which provides past governors as well as their deputies with pensions and other government benefits.

 

“It is our firm belief that with dwindling revenues and the appurtenant inflationary growth rates, that we need to come up with innovative ways of keeping the costs of governance at a minimum while engendering a spirit of selflessness in public service,” he said. For more information, watch the full speech here