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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 N78.17 billion 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 N100.9 billion.
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 N100.7 billion 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 N131.9 billion) and Rivers State, a top oil-producing state (N123.3 billion).
Meanwhile, Governor Dapo Abiodun has disclosed that the economy of the state 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, 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 N500 million to N600 million.
