Ondo Assembly passes N698 billion year 2025 budget
……Passes UNIMED, Anti- land grabbing bills
By Awodeyi Elizabeth
The Ondo State House of Assembly has passed the year 2025 budget into law .
With the passage, the Ondo State Government is to spend a total sum of N698,659,496,000.00 Billion in the 2025 fiscal year.
The sum of N265,037,496,000.00 is for recurrent Expenditure which will account for 47.94% of the total Budget. The sum of N433,622,000,000.00 is for Capital expenditure, representing 62.06% of the total budget (N698,659,496,000.00) out of which N10,100,000,000.00 is allocated to Ondo State Oil producing Area Development Commission (OSOPADEC) for the Capital Expenditure.
The approved budget was increased by N43,429,496,000.00 billion.
The House had earlier committed the year 2025 budget proposal
to the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation for scrutiny and defence by MDAs which ended over a week ago.
Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa had presented a total Budget of N655.230 billion naira for the 2025 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly.
The budget christened “Budget of Recovery,” is higher than that of the 2024 fiscal year which stood at N395.257 billion.
Presenting its report at a plenary presided over by the Speaker, Rt Hon Olamide Oladiji ,the Chairman, House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Hon Oluwole Ogunmolasuyi said the Committee observed among others that the fiscal documents takes cognizance of the economic reality.
He said:”nitially, a sum of N655,230,000,000.00 only was presented to the House in the Appropriation Bill. In the course of the Budget consideration, very careful consideration of figures was undertaken viz- a-viz the amount expended in the current year and its budgetary provisions. This was compared with the 2024 proposal. The Committee observed that the fiscal current priorities have changed due to the removal of fuel subsidy as well as fluctuating exchange rate and the recent increment in salaries via minimum wage.
“To this extent, the Committee extremely restrained itself from granting further requests by MDEAs except in very few critical areas, which resulted in N43,429,496,000.00 only. At the end of the day, the total Budget provision as approved by the committee is N698,659,496,000.00 only.
“The Committee equally noted that the hyper inflationary trend has affected, to some extent, the prevailing cost projections highlighted in the provisions.
“Interactions with MEDAs confirmed that there is the need for them to gear up their revenue drive mechanism so that the listed quantum of Independent Revenue could be attained.
“The Committee considered it imperative that a regular Budget evaluation/town hall meeting should be held with a view to actualizing the purpose of the fiscal instrument’.
The Committee recommended that the State Government should take all necessary steps to ensure that the expected Independent Revenue target is attained;
It added that the State Government should ensure that the schedules which accommodate necessary adjustments that are required to meet the urgent needs of the people of Ondo State are conscientiously applied to the needs stated.
The Committee said that the Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Ministry of Finance in conjunction with Ondo State Internal Revenue Service (ODIRS) should ensure that the desire of the State Government to boost its Independent Revenue is pursued seriously in line with the dictates of the extant Laws.
After the Speaker subjected the report to critical debate at the plenary and scaling through the third reading, it was unanimously adopted for passage through a majority voice vote.
In his Speech, Speaker Oladiji noted that the 2025 fiscal budget will further drive the growth of the economy and commencement of new projects and programmes that are crucial to the development of the State.
While commending Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa for his role in the passage of the bill, he assured that both the executive and the legislature will continue to work in harmony in the best interest of the State.
Meanwhile, a bill to amend the Ondo State University of Medical Sciences law, 2015 and for other matters incidental or connected therewith and also, a bill to to prohibit forceful entry and illegal occupation of landed property, violent and fraudulent conducts in relation to landed property in Ondo State has also been passed into law after scaling through the third reading.
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