Bankole Taiwo, Abeokuta
Ogun State Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr Adeola Odedina said that the ministry plans to spend N3.78bn to further develop the agricultural sector come 2022.
Dr Odedina said this budget had been carefully prepared so that the state government could consolidate on its achievements in the promotion of selected key value chains such as Rice, Cassava, Poultry and Fish amongst others, while also supporting farms and firms from World Bank Intervention in the next fiscal year.
Odedina stated this while appearing before Members of the State House of Assembly Committee on Finance and Appropriation chaired by Hon Olakunle Sobukanla, to defend his Ministry’s budget for 2022.
Giving the breakdown of the budget proposal, Odedina said that out of the total estimate, N1.25bn would go for personnel, while overhead would gulp N100m just as the sum of N2.429bn was set aside for capital projects.
He further reassured that the Ministry was committed to ensuring food security in the state as well as provide raw materials for industrial growth and expansion of Infrastructural facilities for socio-economic development.
In same vein, the State Ministry of Forestry says it plans to spend a total budget estimate of N1.395bn in the coming year; out of which the sum N685m would be expended on recurrent.
The State Commissioner for Forestry, Engr. Tunji Akinosi, who reeled out the figures while defending his Ministry budget for the next fiscal year, gave a further breakdown to include N685.7m for recurrent, which consist of N603m for personnel and the remaining N82.6m for overhead, while a total of N709.8m was being earmarked for Capital expenses.
Akinosi added that a sum of N205m was proposed as revenue to be generated for next year, stating that the revenue could be actualized through proceeds from sales of farm produce and timbers, issuance of sawmill license, earnings from inter-State tolls as well as rents on government’s lands and properties.
Other agencies that defended their budget estimates were the Forestry Plantation Project, Agro Service Corporation, the Agricultural Development Corporation, Agricultural Development Programme, Cassava Revolution Programme, Value Chain Development Programme and Economic Transformation Project.