A whooping N77.7bn is the amount budgeted to be spent by Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola as approved in the year’s budget.
This is as Huhuonline.com revealed yesterday that the state’s debt profile has hit N435bn.
The N77.7bn as contained in the 2014 budget analysis carried out by the state Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Ben Akabueze is reportedly meant for the operational running cost of the executive arm of the state government and amounts to a total running cost of 52.97 per cent of the total overhead cost of the government put at N146.7bn.
Akabueze also explained that the state government had projected a 10 per cent growth in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the year.
He said this projection represents a 3.2 per cent increase over the projected GDP growth for Nigeria put at 6.8 per cent, adding that the state government was planning to intensify its revenue generation drive to meet the 2014 budget implementation.
The projection, he said, is based on the global assumption that the world economy would strengthen this year with sustained growth in developing economies and effective budget performances.
The commissioner said N12bn is to be spent on pensions, N1.06bn on scholarship and bursary for indigent students of the state while subvention for tertiary institutions in the state gets N10.02bn.
He said the state has a projection of N327.206bn in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and that for this to be possible, the state’s Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) is expected to generate N265.860bn or 67 per cent while the other figure would be generated from other agencies and ‘Dedicated Revenue’.
