The Lagos State Government has announced that future budgets will focus on infrastructural development to accommodate the state’s growing population.
At a stakeholders’ consultative forum, Mr. Ope George, the Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, discussed the state’s 2025 Budget and sought residents’ input.
George provided an update on the 2024 budget’s performance for the first half of the year and outlined the government’s plans.
“We have an estimated population of about 29 million, which is constantly increasing,” George noted.
He expressed concern about the influx of migrants, stating that the state must provide amenities and transportation for them, which adds pressure on Lagos.
“The fact that they’re coming, we have to provide for them, provide amenities for them, provide transportation.
“So, at times in Lagos, we are constrained with the amount of pressure we have with migrants coming in every year.
“We look at our population and we find that before the end of the year, the migration pattern changes and the population changes with it,” George said.
The commissioner said that Lagos State has been able to contain the pressure from migration by continually growing it’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)
“We are a very resilient state. We are very reliant on our IGR which constitutes over 70 per cent of our total revenues. It accounts for over 18 per cent of national GDP.
“So given the structural drive, the last 20 per cent of our budget was allocated to infrastructure, and we still paid attention this year to social protection,” the commissioner said.
Despite these challenges, Lagos has managed to handle the migration pressure by increasing its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), which makes up over 70% of the state’s total revenues and accounts for more than 18% of the national GDP.
George highlighted that 20% of the recent budget was allocated to infrastructure, with continued attention to social protection.
The state remains dedicated to residents’ welfare, implementing initiatives to improve living standards, including providing state-of-the-art energy solutions.
” So we looked at various initiatives and projects to help promote the standard of living.
“We were able to provide energy at a state-of-the-art rate,” George said.
Plans are also in place to offer loans to grassroots groups to redistribute wealth.
For the 2024 planning process, the state prioritized food security, affordable housing, and continuous improvement in education, such as the equity-based LASU hostel project.
These areas will also be a priority in the 2025 budget.
“We looked at strengthening measures to enhance food security and affordable housing. We also looked at continuous improvement of our education.
“I know we did some work here. LASU hostels were done on equity arrangements,” the commissioner said.
