2025 Budget: Makinde Presents N678bn ‘Budget of Economic Stabilization’ to Oyo Assembly As Education, Infrastructure Get Lion’s Share with N145bn, N152bn Allocation

… As Minimum wage, Healthcare, Agriculture Get Boost in 2025 Budget

Oyo State Governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde, has presented a sum of 678.06 billion naira to Oyo state House of Assembly for passage as the state’s 2025 budget.

Governor Makinde presented the proposed budget named “Economic Stabilization” during a special plenary presided over by Speaker, Honourable Adebo Ogundoyin.

The Governor, hinted that capital expenditure would get 343 billion naira at 50.59% while recurrent expenditure would gulp 335 billion naira at 49.41% of the budget which is 15% higher than last year’s.

Governor Makinde, said 145 billion naira would be allocated to education sector as the second highest percentage after Infrastructure which has 152 billion naira at 22.46%, Health would get 59 billion naira at 9% and Agriculture 18 billion naira at 3%.

The Governor who hinted that intending recruited teachers would benefit from 80 thousand naira minimum wage he recently announced, also pledged to extend upgrading of feeder roads in Ibadan, to other zones of the state in 2025.

He stated”Well, both the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and other international forecasters predict that Nigeria’s inflation rate will drop by between 7 and 12 points in 2025.

This is good news.
“Turning these projections into reality requires deliberate strategic action by the federal, state and local governments. It cannot be business as usual.

“And so, as the Pacesetter State, we have deliberated on the feedback received as we went round all the geopolitical zones and asked for inputs from stakeholders into the 2025 budget.

“So, today, I stand before you, Mr Speaker Sir and the Honourable Members of this House to present the Oyo State 2025 Budget of Stabilisation.

“The goal of this budget is to consolidate the economic gains we engineered through the 2024 Budget of Economic Recovery and translate them into more tangible benefits for our people.

“Here in Oyo State, it has always been our pride to ensure that every kobo approved by this house is used to drive sustainable development in the State.

“The Oyo State 2025 Appropriation Bill is not going to be any different. We are even more determined to ensure that our people get more benefits from the implementation of this budget.

“Before I talk about our plans for 2025, permit me, Mr Speaker Sir to review the impact of the 2024 Budget of Economic Recovery in our dear State.

“You will recall the 2024 Appropriation Bill was the first full year’s budget we presented under this tenure.

“We were determined to ensure sustainable development by leveraging the four pillars of economy (through agriculture, infrastructure, solid minerals development and tourism), education, healthcare and security.

“One of the major areas we promised to work on as supported by 17.11% of that budget was infrastructure.

“Mr Speaker Sir, Honorable members of the House, I am happy to report that in the last year, we delivered 118.07 kilometres of roads to the people of Oyo State. This includes the completion of the 76.67 Iseyin-Fapote-Ogbomoso Road which we renamed the Adebayo Alao-Akala Memorial Highway.

“This road has greatly increased socio-economic activities in both the Oke-Ogun and Ogbomoso Zones as it provides a vital link between the two zones.

“We were also able to commence the reconstruction of feeder roads within the State, starting with the Ibadan Zone.

“So far 43.46 kilometres of feeder roads have been completed while 59.52 kilometres are ongoing as we continue to make commuting easier for our people.

“These roads have tremendous impact on our people. We will be extending he feeder road reconstruction and rehabilitation to all other zones under this proposed budget. We are happy when we hear testimonials from residents such as Evangelist Samuel Ayeni who has lived at Osasanmi from as far back as 1981, and can testify to the quality of road construction completed in his area as part of the first 38.48 km of feeder roads in Ibadan.

“Still on transportation, we have continued with the transportation subsidy, which we introduced in June 2023 and continued under the Sustainable Actions for Socio Economic Recovery (SAfER) from August 2023 till date.

“This subsidy has made it possible for about 30,000 of our people to enjoy up to 50% lower costs in transportation on a daily basis as 75 buses are currently operating in intra and inter-city routes.

“We have delivered support to our small holder farmers and micro and small enterprise investors. As at October 2024, 2,085 entrepreneurs received parts of the five hundred million naira (N500,000,000) low interest loans we provided to enable them boost their businesses.

“At the same time, over 10,000 smallholder crop and livestock farmers were given farm inputs while N1 billion was disbursed to 3,525 farmers as low interest loans under SAfER. We also provided a tractorisation subsidy to support smallholder farmers across the State.

“Furthermore 3,660 smallholder crop and livestock farmers have so far benefitted from the fourth phase of inputs distribution and training under the Oyo State NG-CARES programme this year.

“One question, we are always asked is what impact our investments in agriculture and trade have yielded as the people are still hungry and the cost of major produce are still high.

“Mr Speaker Sir, permit me to relate a personal anecdote, which can be entered as a testimonial to the progress we have so far made. A few weeks ago, precisely after the attending the passing out parade of 480 Amotekun Forest Rangers, I decided to pay a surprise visit to one of our agribusiness investors at Iseyin.

“I was shocked by the number of trucks loaded with produce that passed us. Upon enquiry, I discovered that these trucks come into our State to purchase the cassava we produce which they sell in surrounding States.

“While it is not economically viable to place an embargo on inter-state trade, it is imperative that we get the value of investment and harvest the required data to show our accomplishments. It is for this reason that I have directed that while intra-state trade in agricultural produce will not be taxed, trucks carrying produce out of our State will now be taxed.

“We continue to take actions that will move our people from poverty to prosperity.

“Through personal experience, I know that one of the core areas that can change the destiny of our people is access to quality education.

“This year, we missed an opportunity to use the long holidays to embark on repair of at least 100 dilapidated secondary schools. We will still fix these schools in the coming months. Meanwhile, 105 primary schools in rural communities are being renovated under the World Bank assisted Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) programme and are at 95% completion. We plan to do more in this coming year.

“Also, we have embarked on massive recruitment of teachers. A total of 14,500 primary and secondary school teachers are waiting for letters of employment.

“This is the first time in the history of Oyo State that such a number of teachers are being recruited at the same time. In fact, we broke our own record of 5,000 secondary school teachers recruited in one go under Omituntun 1.0.

“The new teachers will be part of the beneficiaries of the N80,000 minimum wage which we are proposing for civil servants in Oyo State as we transition from the wage award of N25,000 for civil servants and N10,000 for pensioners.
We continue to prioritise the healthcare sector.

“Having upgraded 209 primary healthcare centres under Omituntun 1.0, we have taken the next steps of equipping these PHCs and an additional 55 making 264 primary healthcare centres. We also completed the upgrade of General Hospital Aremo.

“In keeping with our promise for Omituntun 2.0, we are also recruiting 332 doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers as well as 3,000 primary healthcare workers to address the shortfall of medical personnel in our dear State.

“We hope this will cut down wait times in hospitals for people like Mrs Mercy Akinsilure, who accesses medical care at the upgraded General Hospital Aremo.
Additionally, we also paid the 2024 health insurance premiums for 40,000 pensioners, tertiary education students in State-owned institutions and 100,000 vulnerable persons under the Oyo State Health Insurance Agency (OYSHIA) scheme.

“Mr Speaker Sir, Honourable Members of the House, permit me at this point, to present the Oyo State 2025 Appropriation Bill that will support the new minimum wage, and power further investments in our economy, education, healthcare and security sectors.

“We are proposing a budget of six hundred and seventy-eight billion, eighty-six million, seven hundred and sixty-seven thousand, three hundred and thirty-two-naira, eighteen kobo.
(N678,086,767,332.18).

“Of this, three hundred and forty-three billion, twenty-eight million, nine hundred and forty-eight thousand, two hundred- and sixteen-naira, twenty kobo (N343,028,948,216.20) which is 50.59% is for capital expenditure while three hundred and thirty-five billion, fifty-seven million, eight hundred and nineteen thousand, one hundred- and fifteen-naira, ninety-eight kobo (N335,057,819,115.98) which is 49.41% is for recurrent expenditure.

“Having looked at the data, including current inflation trends and projections for the year 2025, our Budget of Economic Stabilisation is just about 35% higher than our 2024 Budget of Economic Recovery.

“We kept in mind the fact that we want an implementable budget. Our last budget is at about 65% implementation as of Q3, which is 5% short of our projection. We believe that our revenue options will support over 70% implementation in 2025.

“As stated, our plan is to spend a little over 50% of the proposed budget on capital expenditure, while about 49% goes into recurrent expenditure. A further breakdown of the budget shows:
Infrastructure gets the highest share of the budget. We have earmarked one hundred and fifty-two billion, two hundred and sixty-five million, eight hundred and fifty-nine thousand, seven hundred and thirty-eight-naira, nineteen kobo (N152,265,859,738.19). This is 22.46% of the total budget.

“Education gets the second highest appropriation at one hundred and forty-five billion, three hundred and fifty-four million, seven hundred and eighty-three thousand, three hundred- and ninety-nine-naira, eighty kobo (N145,354,783,399.80). This is 21.44% of the total budget.

“As stated before, the infrastructure deficit in this sector and our inability to meet up with our plans in the last year has necessitated an increase in the allocation. We hope to renovate a number of schools in the coming year.

“Health and Agriculture at fifty-nine billion, four hundred and eleven million, three hundred and eighty-five thousand, seven hundred- and fourteen-naira, sixty-eight kobo (N59,411,385,714.68) and eighteen billion, seven hundred and sixty million, two hundred and forty-three thousand, three hundred- and forty-eight-naira, forty-five kobo (N18,760,243,348.45) are about 9% and 3% of the budget respectively.

“We strongly believe that this budget will live up its name as the economic stabilisation that will support our Oyo State Roadmap for Sustainable Development 2023-2027.

‘Our plan is to bring more smiles into the faces of investors, smallholder farmers, micro and small entrepreneurs, our teachers and other public servants, our parents, our children, our youths, and all residents of Oyo State.

“We want to hear more well-dones from people like Oluwaseun Adeomi, even as we continue to do the best we can for our people.

“My prayer, Mr Speaker Sir and the Honourable Members of the House, is that you extend the same hand of fellowship and union that we have enjoyed over the years as you deliberate on the 2025 Appropriation Bill and grant it passage to the benefit of residents of our dear State, he said.

Responding, Honourable Ogundoyin, who pledged swift passage of the bill, expressed satisfaction with success rate of 2024 budget, and charged Governor Makinde to build on the momentum to surpass the performance in 2025.