Ambode wants to spend N662 billion in 2016

Lagos Stage Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, on Thursday, presented the 2016 budget to the state’s House of Assembly for approval.

Ambode proposes to spend a total of N662.588billion in the coming year, as opposed to N489.9bn in the current year.

“The increase will enable our government to focus on the present challenges of security, traffic gridlock resolution including physical and social infrastructural development which has thrown up new challenges quite different from what we used to experience and have always known,” he said.

Estimated revenue for 2016 stands at N524.873bn. That’s Nll9.714bn less than the projected expenditure.

“The balance will be funded through deficit financing that will be 0.41% of the state GDP based on 2016 budget alone and a cumulative debt to GDP ratio of about 3%”, he explained.

58 percent of the total expenditure will go to capital projects while the remaining 42 percent are recurrent expenditures.