ODHA Passes N181bn 2018 budget Ondo State House of Assembly has passed the 2018 appropriation bill into law. The House unanimously passed the budget estimate at a plenary presided by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Bamidele Oleyelogun. It would be recalled that the state Governor Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, presented a total sum of N171, 267, 913, 000 to the Assembly for passage into law on December 22 last year. The budget estimate was, however, jacked up by the House by N10, 156, 627, 283bn, making the total budget passed into law to be N181, 424, 540, 283. The passage followed the submission and adoption of the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation under the chairmanship of Hon.Sunday Olajide Olajide also gave the reasons for the budget increase, saying that the sum N7bn SUBEB funds for capital projects in 2017 was rolled into the 2018 budget, while the sum of N2bn was also earmarked for the conduct of local government election. He further added that errors observed in the proposals of MDAs were rectified culminating in the increase of the budget sum. Submitting the report, Hon. Olajide said the budget estimate gave clear expression to the vision of the government to transform Ondo state, adding that the 2018 expenditure it is quite set at sustainable level taking cognizance of the current economic realities. He noted that the committee observed that there are clear indications that considering the projections in the budget, there would not be abandoned projects. Out of the budget, the sum of N78, 587, 675, 486 is voted for recurrent expenditure, while the sum of N80, 928, 985, 234bn is for capital expenditure. N13, 599, 878, 084bn is for debt service, while the sum of N8,308,001, 478.30 is for statutory transfer. The Majority Leader of the House, Hon. Olugbenga Araoyinbo moved a motion for the passage of the bill after the adoption of the committee report and this was seconded by the Deputy Speaker Rt. Hon. Iroju Ogundeji.