Gov. Oyetola signs N119 billion Osun budget

Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State on Monday assented to the state’s 2020 Appropriation Bill of N119 billion.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the budget tagged, ‘Budget of Restoration,’ was passed by the Osun House of Assembly on December 24.

Mr Oyetola, after assenting to the bill, which was formally presented to him by the Speaker of the Assembly, Timothy Owoeye, said his administration was committed to the full implementation of the fiscal proposal.

The governor described the size of the budget as realistic, saying his government would stop at nothing to ensure it was fully implemented.

Mr Oyetola said his government decided to prune down the size of the budget compared to the 2019 proposal, having realised the socio-economic realities and limited resources available to the state.

He promised to continue to initiate policies that would make life more meaningful, worthwhile and abundant for the people of the state.

The governor commended the leadership and members of the State House of Assembly for passing the budget within a short time.

Mr Oyetola promised to maintain the level of understanding and cooperation existing between the three arms of government in general and the legislature in particular.

“I am particularly delighted we were able to conclude the presentation, passing and signing of the year 2020 budget before the end of the year 2019.

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“I must commend the leadership of the House of Assembly — the Speaker and other principal officers — for ensuring smooth passage of the budget and for ensuring they looked at the budget critically which is ready for signing today.

“That is to show that we are ready to move the state forward come Year 2020. We do believe in budget size that will enable us to carry out proper implementation. That is the essence of what we are doing today.

“The 2019 budget which is coming to an end two days from now was about N154 billion, but we realised that we didn’t have too much of the revenue that we budgeted.

“So, we decided to trim down this year’s budget size to a size that we believe is realistic and with it, we will be able to do a lot for our people within the limit of our resources.

“The budget size for the Year 2020 is N119.50 billion and we believe that with that budget, a lot of things that we plan to do for 2020 would be achieved.

“The way we went about the budget actually confirms that the leadership of the House is with us, particularly for the timely passage of the budget, unlike some states where there will be issues relating to budget size.

“We had gone through it together even before it was prepared, presented and signed,” the governor said.

In his remarks, Mr Owoeye described the signing of the bill as unique.

He said that it was the first time in the history of Osun that the budget for the following year was completed before the beginning of that year.

Mr Owoeye described this as a show of commitment of the governor to fiscal transparency, accountability and sustainability.

(NAN)