Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said on Friday that the state needed at least a N7tn budget size for infrastructure and basic amenities in the 2024 fiscal year.
Sanwo-Olu, however, added that he would soon present a budget of over N2tn to the state House of Assembly.
The governor, who disclosed this at the 8th Lagos Corporate Assembly, a business forum, tagged ‘Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, BOS Meets with Business Community,’ held at Lagos House, Ikeja, also expressed the readiness of his administration to ensure ease of doing business in the state despite current global business challenges.
“The demands from the report gathered from ministries, departments, and agencies show that if we have the resources, at least N7tn will be needed for the 2024 budget to meet the state’s infrastructural challenges and other basic amenities.
“Though we are proposing over N2tn budget size for the year 2024 to be presented to the state House of Assembly soon and we are having a demand of N7trn, our revenue is far from it.
“That’s one of the challenges we are having presently. We want to fix roads and do it correctly. We need to scale up with modern technology and put in place enduring policies.
“We didn’t anticipate the current inflationary rate. Our focus is on how to meet the demands of our people amid the speculative market,” he added.
He solicited collaboration with the business community as well as the Federal Government to meet the demands, adding that his government was running against time, and he could not afford to fail.
He said, “We are where we are today and if we don’t get it right here, it will have dire consequences for our country. We can have a handshake with the Federal Government.
“Mr President, in recent times, has embarked on trips abroad to canvass for investors to open up Nigeria’s economy as part of the Renewed Hope Agenda. “We can’t give excuses; we need to work together.
“We are running against time. I have a political timeline I am working with. We can’t afford to fail.
“We will need to work together and identify the way forward. We should be able to solve some of our challenges through your ideas and submissions. We must let the MSMEs breathe for a sustainable economy, through friendly policies.”
Earlier, the Commissioner for Commerce, Cooperative, Trade and Investment, Mrs Folashade Ambrose-Medebem, stated that the corporate assembly had been a very important public-private sectors engagement platform, through which the state government and the business community interact and discussed issues that were crucial to the state’s industrial and commercial growth.
