The Oyo State House of Assembly on Wednesday approved N273.7 billion for the 2021 fiscal year.

Governor Seyi Makinde had earlier presented a budget of N266.6billion but was later increased by the state lawmakers to N273.7billion.

The budget was reviewed upwards after extensive debates by lawmakers.

The budget tagged; “Budget of continued Consolidation” was approved after the state Assembly received and adopted its committee on public account, finance and appropriation, Peoples Gazette learnt.

Appropriation committee chairman Akem Mustapha said over N136 billion was proposed for recurrent expenditure, but over N137 billion was approved. The budget also proposed N130.3 billion for capital expenditure, but N136.1 billion was finally approved by the legislature.

House Speaker Adebo Ogundoyin said the recurrent and capital were nearly the same because the state planned to focus more on developing infrastructure in 2021.

Mr. Ogundoyin said the House thoroughly scrutinised the budget before it was passed, saying lawmakers will continue to promote budget performance as part of their oversight function.

The parliament approved N208 billion for the 2020 fiscal year.