14th December, 2016
The Ogun State Government has said that it would spend N11.5billion on road construction in the 2017 fiscal year.
Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, disclosed this while defending his ministry’s 2017 budget before the Ogun House of Assembly Committee on Finance and Appropriation in Abeokuta on Wednesday.
Adegbite explained that the amount would be used to settle the bill of contractors in ongoing road projects in major towns and also the construction of other roads on direct labour basis.
The commissioner said that the state proposed to spend N3billion for the rehabilitation and repairs of road across the three senatorial districts of the state in 2017.
He said that the state would pay N800million as compensation to citizens whose properties were affected and would still be affected by the ongoing road construction in the state.
According to him, the ministry generated N1.07 billion revenue between January and October this year and had proposed to generate N1.4bn in 2017.
He said that most of the revenue generated was from right of way from telecommunication companies.
Adegbite said that out of the ministry’s N16.8billion proposed total expenditure for 2017, N365 million would be for recurrent while N16.5billion would be for capital expenditure.
“We are hoping to complete the 20 ongoing roads of about 357.11km across the state as well as modern markets and residential buildings.
“Another objective of the 2017 budget proposal is the construction of additional 500km of durable asphalt roads in major towns across the state.
“We are hoping that as soon as fund is available, we will be able to do all that we have proposed,” he said.
Mr Olakunle Oluomo, the Deputy Speaker, appealed to the ministry to ensure that most of the roads mentioned in the budget defence were attended to as soon as possible.
Oluomo also appealed to the Ministry of Budget to always ensure that money allocated to the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure was increased considering the peculiarity of the ministry.