THE Executive Chairman of Alimosho LGA, Hon. Jelili Adewale Sulaimon has insisted on funds for infrastructural development and capacity development in the council area.
He said this during the opening ceremony of the year 2023 three-day Budget Retreat held at the Ben Auto Hotel, Santos Layouts, Akowonjo, Alimosho, Lagos.
He said, "Alimosho has seven political wards, there are roads, drainage channels, in each of the wards begging for attention, these are legacy projects that will have direct impacts on the people and improve economic activities when completed.
“It has been observed that road construction adds value to communities affected because it has multiple benefits on vehicles plying the roads, increases reachability or accessibility, aesthetics and other things.
“One of the cardinal objectives of a budget retreat of this nature is to allocate funds to sectors that have direct benefits on the people, such as Works and Infrastructure, Environment, Education, and Health, in order to aid the reduction or elimination of poverty, diseases, illiteracy, ignorance, and others.
The Guest Lecturer, Mr Olanrewaju Agoro, who spoke on Fiscal Responsibility and Sustainable Development, charged the local government to ensure that their overhead cost could be paid from the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) while the funds from the federal allocation are dedicated to capital development.
According to him, "all local governments should begin to initiate ideas that can rake in revenue without recourse to the allocation from the Federal Government because the price of crude oil in the international market has crashed, adding that Nigeria is struggling to meet the quota approved for it by OPEC due to oil theft and vandalization of pipelines.
The Vice-Chairman, Hon. Johnson Akinpelu affirmed that the Executive Council will come up with bye-laws that will assist the Revenue Officers to have a hitch-free revenue collection anywhere within the Local Government Area.
The Council-Manager, Mr Victor Semako Alivide, on his part, affirmed that training and retraining of revenue collectors will have a remarkable impact on the next year's revenue.
"We have allocated enough funds for training, not only the junior officers but revenue collectors. We are very much aware of the enormous tasks ahead of us next year because we must meet our target,” he said.
The Council Treasurer, Mr Tunde Olugbuyi assured that the e-billing, which the Local Government started this year, would be improved upon, while warning rate-payers never to give cash to council officials.
The Head, Budget, Planning, and Statistics, Mrs Bukonla Odumokun, said the budget retreat was not only to allocate funds but to deliberate on how to generate more funds, internally, to run the Local Government.
