The Ogun State government has refuted the statistical agency, BudgIT Foundation’s widely publicised 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 chief economic adviser to the governor and Commissioner for Finance honourable 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.
The commissioner therefore, demanded a retraction of the said publication, which he said had caused the Gateway 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 accoeding to him 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 Prince Dapo Abiodun-led administration to put the economy on a sound footing and make the state Nigeria’s top investment destination.
According to 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.
The report says ogun state 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).
