By Adekola Afolabi
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Tremendous improvement in the economy, particularly in the area of infrastructure and job creation has been predicted for Ondo State in the 2019 fiscal year.

Making the prediction yesterday in Akure, the Ondo state capital, is an economic expert and Resource Management consultant, Fessy Olabode, while analysing the 2019 budget proposal presented to the Ondo State House of Assembly by the state governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu.

The economic expert hinged his prediction on the substantial amount of money the state government voted for the capital expenditure in the 2019 budget.

The governor had on Monday December 31, 2018, presented a total of N190.023 billion budget tagged “Budget of Advancement”, to the State House of Assembly for approval in the 2019 financial year. The figure represented an increase of 4. 74 percent, compared to the 2018 budget of N181.425 billion.

According to the 2019 budget estimates, a whooping sum of N87.906 billion was budgeted for capital expenditure as against the sum of N80. 929bn budgeted for the same purpose in 2018. Also, a total of N82. 179bn representing 43.2 percent is voted for recurrent expenditure in the 2019 fiscal year, as against N73. 812bn given to recurrent expenditure in 2018.

But while commenting on the budget, Olabode,  noted that the 2019 budget proposal was a good approach with capital expenditure having the lion share over recurrent expenditure.

“This means government will concentrate on capital projects. When you concentrate on infrastructural development, projects that can create jobs, this means government is interested  in things that can make you to develop yourself and in turn develop our GDP. This will improve our economy tremendously and drastically reduce youths unemployment.

“Let me quickly mention the area of road construction. A lot of money was budgeted for road construction, especially the rural roads where we have abundant produce and these are wasting. So, if government focuses on rural roads development there would be no wastage any more. I want to commend government for this because about 500 rural roads are being attended to now across the state.

“Also, when government creates industries, there will be enough jobs for employable youths. Now, government is creating industrial hubs in Ore, Okeluse areas, and Araromi seaside. In all now, we are having about five industries ready for takeoff in the state. These industries are just waiting for their connection to the national grid.

“The implication of this is that we are going to have a boost in our employment generation because these industries will employ our youths, especially those that are employable and the economy will develop greatly”, he stressed.

The management expert, however, called on government to put in place a committee that will handle what he called local content to ensure people from the state immensely benefit in terms of being employed by those industries, including in bitumen exploration.

On recurrent expenditure, the management consultant commended the governor for giving priority to workers’ welfare which made him to pay salaries as at when due.