ADO-EKITI —  THE Ekiti State governor, Kayode Fayemi, yesterday, presented a budget proposal of N103.882 billion for the 2014 financial year, with water supply taking the lion share.

The budget, christened ‘Budget of Stability and Growth,’ is to be sourced from statutory allocation, Value Added Tax, VAT, Excess Crude proceed, Internally Generated Revenue, External Grants, MDGs Conditional Grant scheme, reimbursement on federal roads, ecological fund, bond, FAAC augmentation and transfer from prior fiscal year.

Presenting the appropriation bill, the Governor stated that a total of N52,776,226,693.19 representing 51.8 per cent of the proposed budget will be spent on capital projects while N50,106,166,739.81 representing 48.2 per cent is for recurrent expenditure.

Governor Fayemi, who also gave a review of the budget performance since 2011 to date, explained that N4.136 billion has been earmarked to boost water supply in the state in response to the demands by many communities during his town hall meetings which was concluded two weeks ago.

He disclosed that the World Bank has also approved $50 million to support water and sanitation in 2014 while N500 million has been set aside to meet other requests arising from the town hall meetings.

Fayemi said: “We have invested over N1.2 billion in water production in the last three years with over 157.3 kilometres of water pipe laid in 2011 alone. Three water schemes were completed and commissioned in Efon-Alaye, Okemesi and Ido-Ile, while two other schemes in Ipole-Iloro and Erinjiyan Ekiti are nearing completion.

About four billion cubic meters of water have been produced and distributed through the water schemes to the various communities in the state during the last two years.

While identifying infrastructure development as a priority to his administration, the Governor stated that the balance of proceeds from the bond secured by the state government would be expended on infrastructure, hence a sum of N17,220,000,000 of the entire budget has been set aside for recurrent and other capital projects under infrastructure.

In his remarks, Speaker of the State Assembly, Dr Adewale Omirin commended the Fayemi-led administration on the implementation of the 2013 budget, saying though not implemented 100 percent was impressive and has made the state witness a greater performance which birthed some landmark projects and programmes.

Present at the budget presentation were deputy governor, Prof Modupe Adelabu, traditional rulers, and others.