2010 Budget Speech - Review Of Our Performance

Y2010 Budget Of Consolidation

Nov 17, 2009 - This presentation of the third full year budget of our Administration marks another critical milestone in the ongoing radical renewal and modernization of Lagos State.

Our disciplined and focussed budget implementation over the last two and a half years is responsible for the massive construction revolution evident throughout the state in new roads, bridges, classrooms, jetties, markets, water facilities, health facilities, sports facilities, courtrooms, street lights, rural projects and beautification projects among others.

We have seized every opportunity to create thousands of new jobs, sustained free and qualitative social services in key sectors like education and health; strengthened existing initiatives and redeveloped new ones to significantly enhance the safety of lives and property while utilizing micro-credit as a major instrument of poverty alleviation in an unprecedented manner.

Mr. Speaker, Honourable members, our Administration has rendered an account of stewardship to the electorate every hundred days since our assumption of office. This is in practical demonstration of our commitment to accountability in governance as well as a deliberate strategy to keep our people informed and involved, in order to ensure a continuous, and consistent improvement on our performance.

The 18th of January, 2009, marked our 600 days in office and it was the first quarterly rendering of account we gave to the public after the delivery of the Y2009 budget to this August Assembly.

A major feature of this period has been the completion and handing over of a number of life changing projects, programmes and policies we promised our people at inception.

Some of the projects we delivered to the public during this period include the traffic grid lock improvement and re-engineering initiative on the outer Marina to link Ahmadu Bello Way; the traffic gridlock re-engineering initiative on the right turn at the descent of the Five Cowrie Bridge; and the commissioning of the new City Link boats operated by City Link Transit Group in a Public-Private-Partnership agreement with the Lagos State Government as part of our efforts to reduce the pressure on our roads through the maximization of our water ways.

During this quarter we completed the 2nd Phase of the Bar Beach protection shoreline spanning 500 meters from the Akin Adesola street to the Adetokunboh Ademola street junction; completed and delivered for public use the second phase of the Ademola Adetokunboh road on Victoria Island in partnership with Eko Hotels PLC as well as completed and handed over to the tax payers the re-claimed, re-constructed and beautified Muri Okunola Park on Victoria Island.

We also completed and handed over the ultra modern and fully equipped Bola Tinubu Paediatric Complex and Diagnostic Centre at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).

In the period under consideration we disbursed over N1 billion through the Eko Micro-Finance Initiative to enable 5000 indigent women and 4,500 graduates of our skill acquisition and empowerment centres commence new small scale businesses or expand existing ones. It was also at this time that we commenced the reclamation and restoration of Oshodi, which has now come to symbolize the new face of Lagos.

On the 28th of April, 2009, we sustained the tradition of rendering to the public an account of our stewardship over the previous four months. A significant feature of this quarter was the commemoration of the first anniversary of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Lite system; a period during which over 52 million passengers had been transported in the safe, comfortable and fast high capacity buses running on dedicated bus lanes.

In continuation of the transformation of our public transportation system, we procured 195 new air-conditioned buses to transform LAGBUS Asset Management Limited into the largest public bus operator in West Africa while also commissioning 200 brand new corporate cabs operated by Corporate Cabs Services Limited as a Public-Private-Partnership initiative. Another PPP initiative that came on stream in the transportation sector in this quarter is the Ebute-Ipakodo ferry service from Ikorodu to Marina operated by Metro ferry Services Ltd.

During this quarter, we kicked off the pilot project of the Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) to enhance the security of the State through comprehensive surveillance and monitoring by located cameras.

The Lagos State Security Trust Fund continued to wax stronger as we donated 10 Armoured Personnel Carriers, 1000 AK 47 rifles and 2 million rounds of ammunition to enhance the crime–fighting capacity of the Rapid Response Squad in addition to financially rewarding police officers who demonstrated uncommon courage on duty. In the same vein, we donated twelve operational vehicles to the Nigerian Prison Service to assist in the speedy dispensation of justice in Lagos State.

Some of the other accomplishments of this quarter include the completion and handing over of the Bourdillion, Alexander and Gerard roads in Ikoyi; completion and delivery of Montgomerry road, Aje road and Commercial Avenue all in Iyaba; completion and delivery to the public of Ago Palace Way and expanded Link Bridge as well as the completion and handing over for public use of the Waste Transfer Loading Station at Simpson along with 50 additional waste compactor trucks.

In the health sector, the 4th Eko Mission was a success with six open heart surgeries safely conducted with equipment fully owned by Lagos State. We also successfully hosted the 1st Lagos State International Climate Change Summit, which drew up a road map to guide Lagos State and Nigeria’s response to the global environmental challenge.

Another milestone of this quarter was the payment of N5 billion as pension arrears to 5,575 teaching, non-teaching and Local Government pensioners and the establishment of the Lagos State Pension Commission to efficiently manage pension funds and ensure that retirees get their benefits on time.

Apart from successfully upgrading the Teslim Balogun Stadium to meet FIFA standards, we also successfully hosted the most spectacular and Eyo Festival in the history of the unique Adamu Orisha play to signal the readiness of our State for global tourism and its vast economic possibilities.

All of these activities were reflected in our 1st Quarter budget performance of 67%. Although this was an improvement on our 1st Quarter performance for the previous year, we were not satisfied but resolved to work even harder to achieve improved budgetary performance in subsequent quarters. Thus, our half year appraisal of the Y2009 budget revealed an over all performance of 70%.

This reflected concretely in the real economy and lives of our people resulting in creation of over 156,000 new jobs by the first half of the year. A break down of these new jobs shows that 6,114 health and education sector workers were employed at the lower levels; 52, 685 persons were directly employed into the civil service while 98,000 persons were employed indirectly either as sub-contractors or as employees of hundreds of construction sites across the state.

On the 6th of August, 2009, we rendered the quarterly performance of our 800 days in office to a cross section of youth representatives in the State. Incidentally this is a year in which our Administration placed premium on the welfare of children, youth and women as the cardinal plank of our poverty alleviation programme.

This year our Administration created vacation jobs for 5000 students during the long holiday period enabling them to engage their time usefully and earn some pocket money to cushion the financial pressure on their parents and guardians.

As part of our efforts towards the expansion of opportunities and the diversification of our economy we are implementing an Agriculture Based Youth empowerment Scheme tagged Agic-YES.

The major objective of Agric-YES is to engage, equip and empower interested Lagos youths to become world-class agro-entrepreneurs. This is being achieved through a three-phased programme involving:

 A six-month intensive practical based training in Poultry, Aquaculture, Horticulture, Bee-keeping and Agric Business;

 A twelve-month internship on a commercial farm to gain experience using internationally accepted best-practices; and

 Settlement on a one hectare per graduate farm in established farm estate with financial as well as institutional support.

This new-age, laptop carrying agro-entrepreneurs are the future of agricultural production in Lagos State with access to latest technological advancements for food production, value addition and trade.

The project was conceived in the wake of urban youth unemployment as a form of Social Protection Response and will contribute to employment generation, food security and economic development.

We re-launched the Uniformed Voluntary Organizations such as the Boys’ Scout, Girls’ Guide, Red Cross and Man O’ War in all our schools to restore the values of creativity, curiosity, healthy adventure and patriotic community service in our youth.

Other youth-oriented programmes successfully undertaken by our Administration include the re-introduction of the inter schools debate to inculcate the culture of healthy intellectual contest among the youth; establishment of Climate Change Clubs in schools to actively engage the youths in the battle for a healthy environment and the initiation of the School Traffic Advocacy Programme to enlist the youths as positive change agents on our high ways.

This period marked the flag off of our aggressive drive to eradicate Polio and other communicable diseases from Lagos State. Our successes in this regard have been acknowledged by the National Primary Health Care Agency.

We are committed to completely wiping out the incidence of Polio in this State within the shortest possible time to ensure that our children grow up in good health to actualize their potentials for the benefit of Lagos State and Nigeria.

In addition to sustaining all our free health care programmes, particularly for children, women and the aged, we continue to single-mindedly pursue the speedy completion of our seven new 100-bed Maternal and Child Care Centres currently in different advanced stages of finishing in different parts of the State.

During this quarter, our Administration successfully convened the 2nd Lagos State Education Summit, which afforded critical stakeholders in the sector an opportunity to brainstorm on challenges confronting education and suggesting far-reaching solutions to elevate the quality of education in the state.

I must in this respect thank members of this distinguished Assembly for passing the Vocation and Technical Education Institutions Law, which is already helping to strengthen this sphere of education as a veritable tool for achieving our objectives as Africa’s emergent Model Mega City.

Another significant achievement of our Administration during this quarter was the expansion of our modern Taxi scheme with the addition, through Public-Private-Partnership, of 1,255 new Taxis thus creating 1,255 new jobs mostly for young persons.

In a similar vein, critical stake holders enthusiastically endorsed the commencement of work on our revolutionary expansion of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway into a Ten-lane international highway. Our mobilization of the contractor to site as well as payment of compensation to owners of structures affected by the development is an indication of our commitment to this massive project that will open up the entire Badagry corridor to rapid development and elevate the economy of Lagos State to new heights.

We also recorded significant progress on our Digital Mapping and Geographical Information System (GIS) project.

Through this equally path-breaking initiative, we are systematically capturing every inch of land in Lagos digitally; an accomplishment which will facilitate prompt documentation of land titles and assist in the efficient planning and deployment of services and utilities across the State. This project will significantly enhance the capacity of the state to provide infrastructure and create wealth for the benefit of the citizenry.

Our Administration has equally spared no effort to continually upgrade safety standards across sectors in the State.

The establishment of the Lagos State Safety Commission to regulate safety standards on public highways, construction sites, work places and schools among others will go a long way in mitigating the incidence of building collapse, pipeline explosion, road accidents and other avoidable disasters.

Our successful hosting of the Y2009 Federations Cup Finals is an indication of how far we have gone in restoring the glory of Lagos as a Centre of Sporting Excellence.

We equally demonstrated our commitment to increasing the avenues and opportunities for healthy recreation in the State through the construction and delivery of the Kernel Street recreation park in Surulere as well as on-going construction of new youth centres/recreation facilities at Imota, Agbowa, Mosan-Okunola, Ori-Ade, Ajara, Badagry, Ibeju, Oto-Awori and Mushin.

We equally demonstrated our methodical efficiency and effectiveness as an Administration by our unrivalled preparedness as a secure and hospitable venue of the Y2009 FIFA Under-17 football competition. The tournament has come and gone, and our visitors have received nothing short of our famous hospitality for which we must thank all members of the Local Organising Committee, the Volunteers and all the citizens who took ownership of this Championship and ensured its success.

It is not surprising that during this period, the transformational strides of our Administration was recognized and applauded both internationally and locally through such awards as Transport Planner of the Year 2009 by the Transport Planning Society of the United Kingdom; Award for good Governance at the Year 2009 African Business Awards in London and the Cleanest Capital in the Federation by the Federal Ministry of Environment.

Equally significant is the success of Lagos State in hosting the largest annual conference ever of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) as well as the consensus at the mega event, irrespective of party affiliation or ethnic origin, that Lagos is a developmental pace setter in Nigeria today. With your support, we have simply forged ahead to work harder to justify the confidence of our people and to continuously raise the standards of excellence.

Accordingly, our Y2009 3rd Quarter budget review, covering the period, July 1st to September 31st, 2009, recorded an impressive overall performance of 75%.

Within the context of the 67% performance reported in the 1st and 2nd Quarters of the year, our cumulative gross actual budget performance at this period stood at 70%. This substantial budgetary performance was reflected in the continued aggressive provision of infrastructure development and delivery of qualitative social services across diverse sectors in our rural and urban areas. It was also a function of more effective supervision and greater diligence on the part of the public service and our development partners resulting in better performance despite inclement weather constraints.

Towards the close of the 3rd Quarter of the budget cycle, we carried out a sectoral re-ordering of resource allocation, in conjunction with this Honourable House to shift revenue utilization to the most critical areas of need. This will expectedly improve the performance of the Y2009 budget in the last quarter of the year.

If there was any more doubt that the faithful implementation of the budget has touched the lives of ordinary people and helped to strengthen the fabric of society, it would be found in the significant reduction of crime levels across the State to an unprecedented minimum as revealed by the crime statistics published in the 3rd Annual Report of the Security Trust Fund which showed that the indices of robbery, vehicle snatching and other violent crimes had dropped by 79.9% within the year.

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