2014 Budget: Ekiti to spend N3b on water provision

The Ekiti State Government has earmarked N3.3 billion for water provision to all the communities in the state in the recently signed 2014 budget.
This is in consonance with the promise made by the state Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, to the people during the town hall meetings held last November in the 132 communities in the state.
Fayemi had promised that government would expend a large percentage of the budget on water supply and meet the 80 per cent target set by his administration for this year.
Giving a breakdown analysis of the 2014 budget tagged: “Budget of Stability and Economic Growth,” in Ado Ekiti on Thursday, the state Commissioner for Budget, Economic Planning and Service Delivery, Biodun Oyebanji, asserted  that there is the need to ensure that water is made available across the nooks and crannies of the state.
Oyebanji explained that out of the sum, N1 billion is earmarked for the Ero Dam Water Supply project; N500 million for the purchase of water treatment chemicals; N350 million for Small Town Water Supply and Sanitation and World Bank Water project counterpart fund.
A sum of N150 million, according to the breakdown, is earmarked for completion of water projects and N180 million for a booster station while the Rural Water Sanitation and Hygiene will receive government’s attention in the sum of N50 million.
While assuring the people of the state that government would continue its war against infrastructural deficit, Oyebanji stated that the performance of any government is largely measured by its success in the areas of water, electricity, housing and good roads “because they are the building blocks for economic development”.
He stressed that this explains why the Fayemi-led administration has placed high premium on infrastructural development across the state.
It is recalled that Fayemi had last December signed the 2014 Budget of N103.8 billion, which is to be sourced from statutory allocation, VAT, excess crude proceeds, IGR, External Grants, MDG Conditional Grants, Reimbursement from the Federal Government on road projects, Bond and ecological fund among others.
Speaking further, Oyebanji stated that the budget process was driven by the Medium Term Expenditure Framework as the estimates started with fiscal projections of revenues for 2014 through 2016, using macro-economic assumptions at three levels.
Oyebanji, who also gave a review of the 2013 budget performance, said there was 71 per cent actual revenue performance and 61 per cent actual expenditure performance in the 2013 fiscal year.
Meanwhile, a statesman and Ekiti State leader, Chief Bandele Falegan, has bemoaned the politicisation of the disbursement of ecological fund to states.
Falegan, who attended the 2014 budget analysis, was surprised that the state is expecting N525 million against the huge ecological challenges that persist in the state and require not less than N5 billion to address.
He said many Peoples Democratic Party-controlled states, which do not have ecological challenges like Ekiti State, get at least N2 billion.
The statesman commended the State Government for the various interventions that have been given to affected communities, stressing that but for that, Ekiti State would have been declared an ecologically distressed state.