Commissioner: Lagos Gov’t To Consider Population Increase In 2025 Budget

According to Ope George, the commissioner for economic planning and budget, the Lagos State Government says that considerations will be made in future budgets with respect to infrastructural development to cater for an increasing population.

He said this at a stakeholders’ consultative forum to seek the residents’ inputs in the state’s 2025 budget.

Mr George said that the forum was to update stakeholders on the state’s 2024 budget performance for the first half of the year.

The commissioner added that the forum was aimed to inform stakeholders about the government’s plans ahead.

“We have an estimated population of about 29 million. Our population is constantly changing and growing every day,” he said.

The commissioner said that the influx of migrants into the state at some point became worrisome.

“The fact that they’re coming, we have to provide for them, provide amenities for them, provide transportation. So, at times in Lagos, we are constrained by the amount of pressure we have with migrants coming in every year. We look at our population, and we find that before the end of the year, the migration pattern changes, and the population changes with it,” Mr George explained.

The commissioner said Lagos had been able to contain the pressure from migration by continually growing its internally generated revenue.

“We are a very resilient state. We are very reliant on our IGR, which constitutes over 70 per cent of our total revenues. It accounts for over 18 per cent of national GDP. So given the structural drive, the last 20 per cent of our budget was allocated to infrastructure, and we still paid attention this year to social protection,” the commissioner said.

He further said that the state remained committed to the welfare of residents.

“So we looked at various initiatives and projects to help promote the standard of living. We were able to provide energy at a state-of-the-art rate,” Mr George stressed.

The commissioner said plans were underway to give loans to groups in order to redistribute wealth at the grassroots. He said a lot of that was encompassed in the planning process for 2024, and it would be given priority in the 2025 budget as well.

“We looked at strengthening measures to enhance food security and affordable housing. We also looked at the continuous improvement of our education. I know we did some work here. LASU hostels were done on equity arrangements.”