Ogun State Ministry of Culture and Tourism says it has set strategies aimed at putting in place and ensuring the upgrade of various tourist centres and cultural values, thereby consolidating on the transformation of culture and tourism into economically viable sector and rebrand the State as a tourist destination of choice.

The State Commissioner in charge of the Ministry, Hon. Adijat Adeleye-Oladapo disclosed this while defending the budget proposal of the Ministry before the State lawmakers at the Assembly Complex, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

Hon. Adeleye-Oladapo, who defended a total budget expenditure of N1.235bn for the ministry, stated that the Ministry would identify, preserve, promote and propagate the indigenous cultural heritages and tourism potentials in the State towards socio-economic development of the Gateway State.

Giving the breakdown of the budget, the Commissioner disclosed that capital expenditure would gulp N790m, while N445.8m would be expended on recurrent, with over N56m being expected as internally generated revenue. 

Taking turn to defend the estimates of the State Ministry of Transport, the State Commissioner in charge of the Ministry, Engr. Gbenga Dairo said that the Ministry would develop intercity and intracity mass transport schemes within the State to promote safe, efficient and affordable accessibility for all citizens and visitors.

Thus, Engr. Dairo defended a total budget size of N4.297bn for the Ministry, out of which N4bn would go for capital expenditure and the remaining N297m would take care of recurrent, while the sum of N1.359bn was the expected revenue for the ministry in the next fiscal year.

Other agencies that defended their budget proposals before the lawmakers included the State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE), State Parks and Garages Development Agency amongst others.