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Lagos Records N90.5 Billion Budget Surplus For 2019 – Gov’t

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The Lagos State government achieved a N90.5 billion budget surplus in the 2019 fiscal year.

The performance showed a solid financial standing and sound economic position by the state during the fiscal year.

The announcement of the state’s financial status on Monday, September 28, 2020, followed a misleading report by BudgIT, a public finance analyst, on the fiscal health of Lagos State.

In a statement, the Commissioner for Finance, Rabiu Olowo, said Lagos State will continue to meet its recurrent and loan service obligations and that the information that was published in incorrect, inaccurate, and a gross distortion of the facts.

He said the figures showed the state is economically and financially viable and that the government continues to expand funding sources while also ensuring that prudence and sustainability are at the fore of funding and expenditure decisions.

Also, the state’s total revenue for the year stood at N644.76 billion while the recurrent expenditure and loan repayment obligations were at N544.24 billion, extract from the Lagos State’s published 2019 Audited Financial Statements, showed.

“Lagos State is economically and financially solid. This is contrary to the publication by BudgIT, a public finance analyst, titled ‘Ability of States to Meet Monthly Recurrent Expenditure and Loan Repayment Obligations, 2019’, which the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration described as “misinformation”. BudgIT has apologised for its error,” Olowo said

He said the accurate data for the state showed that total revenue stood at N644,762,788,340.04, recurrent expenditure and loan repayment obligation stood at N554,241,725,038 creating a budget surplus of N90,521,063,302.04.

Olowo said the state government continues to efficiently explore options in both the financial and capital markets, to extract optimal funding solutions, which will enhance the administration’s ability to deliver on the construction, renewal, and improvement of the deficit in social and physical infrastructure for the benefit of Lagosians; who represent 10 percent of Nigeria’s population.

He explained that in the year under review (2019), Lagos State restructured its internal loans to 14 percent per annum, from between 18 percent and 20 percent. These rates have even more recently been re-negotiated to 12 percent yearly.

“Lagos State is the only state that is not reliant on the allocation from the Federal Account Allocation Committee, with Internally Generated Revenue representing circa 72 percent of the state’s aggregate revenues to enable it address challenges faced by megacities world over. As of August 2020, Lagos State’s Internal Revenue Service is doing 103 percent above budget, and well above 2019 figures, despite the COVID-19 pandemic which demonstrates the fiscal resilience of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration for a Greater Lagos,” he said.

Source: The Nation

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