Tourism and creative sector is about to take a huge leap forward in Lagos. The sector, with other key economic areas, will gulp a chunk in the State’s expenditures in the 2025 fiscal year.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu laid bare what would be priorities of the Lagos State Government in the coming year as he presented the State’s 2025 budget to the House of Assembly, on Thursday.
The Governor proposed a total of N3.005 trillion budget estimates, earmarking a huge capital investment of N908.7 billion to the Economic Affairs sector—a cluster of key MDAs, comprising Tourism and Creative Arts, Agriculture, Transportation, Works and Infrastructure, Industry and Investments, Wealth Creation and Employment, Energy and Mineral Resources, Waterfront Infrastructure, and Commerce.
The 2025 Appropriation Bill, christened “Budget of Sustainability,” represents a 32.5 per cent increase over the current year budget, totaling N2.3 trillion.
The increment, Sanwo-Olu said, reflected the growing citizens’ demands for sustainable interventions in programmes and projects that would further raise productivity and energise economic growth in the State.
In response to citizens’ demands, he said the proposed budget was structured to ensure stability, stewardship and social equity around five key pillars, including infrastructure sustainability, economic diversification, social inclusion and human capital development, environmental sustainability, governance and institutional reforms.
The Governor noted that sustaining investment in infrastructure in key areas of priority would enable the State to build up momentum for more growth, stressing that his administration’s infrastructural drive would further get a boost in the coming fiscal year.
Sanwo-Olu disclosed that the Government had completed 30 road projects, including bridges, across the State, which had all been scheduled for commissioning from the beginning of next month.
The Governor also announced that Lagos had sealed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Government’s Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) to kickstart exploratory work on the development of the 68-km Green Line, which will connect Marina to the Lekki Free Trade Zone—a fast-growing industrial corridor in Lagos.
