From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
The Ogun State government has refuted the statistical agency, BudgIT Foundation’s widely publicized report on internally generated revenue across the 36 states of Nigeria titled “State of States, 2022 Edition” with respect to the state’s financial health status.
In a letter to the Foundation’s director by the state Commissioner for Finance and Chief Economic Adviser, Dapo Okubadejo, the state government described BudgIT Foundation’s ranking of Ogun State as having an IGR of N78.17bn for 2021 as inaccurate and misleading.
According to Okubadejo, the State’s Audited report from the Joint Tax Board and the State’s Audited Financial Statement put the state’s IGR for 2021 at N100.9bn.
The Commissioner, therefore, demanded a retraction of the said publication, which it said had caused Ogun State reputational damage, and a publication of the updated figures and the true ranking of the state on BudgIT Foundation’s website.
“The Ogun State Government’s position has indeed been corroborated by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which, on Tuesday, released the correct IGR figures for Ogun State, confirming the efforts by the Dapo Abiodun-led administration to put the economy on a sound footing and make Ogun Nigeria’s top investment destination.
“The NBS in its latest report, the 36 states and the FCT recorded IGR to the tune of N1.89 trillion in 2021 as against the 2020 figure of N1.56 trillion of IGR in 2020, a 22 per cent year-on-year positive growth.
“Ogun, which grew its IGR from N50.6bn in 2020 to N100.7bn in 2021, performed excellently on the IGR index, being only out-performed by Lagos State, Nigeria’s economic capital (N753.3bn); the Federal Capital Territory (FCT N131.9bn) and Rivers State, a top oil-producing state (N123.3bn).
Meanwhile, the state governor, Dapo Abiodun has disclosed that the economy of Ogun has climbed steadily on a sustainable path, as the state has been able to realize over N70b as Internally Generated Revenue between the months of January and September 2022.
The governor, who stated this at the Town Hall Meeting on the 2023- 2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework(MTEF) and 2023 Budget for Ogun East Senatorial District, held in Ijebu-Ode, attributed the upward increase in the state’s IGR to the quality reforms initiated and implemented by his administration
He further disclosed that his administration had increased the quarterly payment to defray outstanding gratuities from N500m to N600m.
The governor, who noted that his administration would continue to put the welfare of the people, especially the senior citizens at the front burner, equally disclosed that over N70b had been released for the payment of backlog of gratuity since he assumed office in 2019.
“We are happy to report to you that our state’s economy is on a sustainable path; largely to our focus on quality reform initiatives introduced by our administration. These include among others our land reform – the Ogun State Land and Revenue Management System; Judicial reforms; tax reforms and all other public financial management reforms.
“We are excited that all these are yielding a very positive impact on our economy, this is self-evident in the growth of our Internally Generated Revenue,” he submitted.