Ambode

Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode on Tuesday disclosed that his administration had executed projects worth N115.624 billion in the last six months as well as earmarked N20 billion to revamp the health and education sector in the next six months.

The governor disclosed this at the 2nd Quarterly Town Hall Meeting held in Badagry, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.

According to Ambode, the government “spent a total of N115.624 bn on Capital projects during the half year 2016 leading to the Capital/Recurrent ratio of 50:50 with the plan to improve this ratio to 58:42 provided for in 2016 Appropriation Law in the remaining half of the year.”

Also, the governor disclosed that the overall budget performance as at half year was 70%, which was an improvement over the corresponding period in 2015 when the performance stood at 63%.

He stated that the revenue recorded 73% performance for the half year of 2016 despite the challenging economic environment.

On his administration’s projection for the next quarter, Ambode said the government had commenced a comprehensive action to rehabilitate and upgrade the facilities in all government hospitals.

“Modern equipment will be procured to facilitate treatment and we will invest in capacity building of our medical staff. We intend to spend over N10 billion on our hospitals across the State before December this year. We will recruit and train medical professionals in areas of rare specialization and special needs,” he stated.

On education, the governor said his administration would establish a Technical and Vocational School in Badagry, adding that the ground breaking would be done in September, 2016.

“In addition, we will upgrade the infrastructure in all our schools starting from this month of July. All our primary and secondary schools will be upgraded to create conducive learning environment for students and teachers.

“Another N10 billion has been earmarked for this facelift of our secondary and primary schools across the State. We have recruited a total of 1,300 teachers for our primary schools. In the next two weeks, we will start recruiting 1,000 teachers for our secondary schools across the State,” he said.

Ambode further said his administration would pay greater attention to issues concerning the elderly.

He added that the government would sponsor bills to the House of Assembly which would make specific provisions for the elderly in the society and create a framework for care for the aged.

“Our priority is to commence the provision of three Elderly Care centres across the three Senatorial zones and further urge the private sector for support and collaboration thereafter,” he said.

He, however, implored residents of the State to take ownership of all government properties located in their area “because they are our common wealth. We will continue to ensure judicious utilization of the resources of the state by executing projects that will outlive us and affirm our position as a Centre of Excellence.”