Why Ondo 2025 Budget Did Not Perform – Gov Aiyedatiwa

By Ayodele Oni

Nine months into the year, Ondo State Government has observed that the 2025 budget of the State has not achieved its objectives.

To this end, the State Government has expressed readiness to streamline and prepare realistic budget for the 2026 fiscal year, in a bid to align its financial plans with available and accessible funding sources.

Disclosing this at the consultative meeting with stakeholders on the 2026-2028 medium term Expenditure framework (MTEF) and 2026 budget organised by the state Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa said the state was focusing on hinging its budget on funds the state is sure of accessing.

Governor Aiyedatiwa attributed  non performance to poor budgeting, as a result of non-payment by foreign development funding organizations for implementation of the 2025 budget.

It would be recalled that the state’s 2025 annual budget was (Grand Total) N:698,659,496,000. The Capital Expenditure was N433,622,000, which was 63.07 percent of the total budget, while the Recurrent Expenditure was N222,168,420,000.

In his address, the governor, who was represented by the state Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. ‘Laolu Akindolire, explained that the state government would be looking at preparing a sizable budget that is within the financial strength of the state.

He disclosed that the state would no longer hing the funding of its budget on development funding which he explained are too cumbersome to access.

The governor said: “When we looked at the 2025 capital budget, it’s just too unrealistic. A capital budget of N433 billion, how do you fund it?

“This is what brought about the need to prepare a more realistic budget that would be well funded. Such that we would be able to perform about 70 to 80 percent.

“It’s not the size of a budget that matters, it’s the ability to fund it and to perform to meet the aspirations of our people. When we put the figures together, we want to see what we can actually get. That’s what we are relying on for the preparation of the 2026 budget.

“The procedure of obtaining funding from most international development organizations is very clumsy. Most of the time, the money does not come. And when we have prepared the budget with it, it leads to poor funding and ends in poor budgeting performance.

“Now we want to look at those that we are really sure of getting in the course of the year. If additional comes, it’s okay.”

Reeling out some items on the proposal for 2026, the Administrative Secretary of the Ministry,  Stephen Aworere disclosed that the 2026 budget was designed in line with World Bank advisory -global market and how it will impact on Nigeria’s economy in 2026.