The Ogun state government, south west Nigeria has declared that it is working towards making the state a leading economy in the country by maximising the potentials which abound in its human and capital resources.
The government’s focal points includes the facilitation of ease of doing business, institutional reforms, development of fiscal policy thrust, and the promotion of public-private partnerships geared at boosting the economy of the state.
Ogun, known as the Gateway state is notable for having a high concentration of industrial Estates and being a major manufacturing hub in Nigeria.
The state’s overall budget for the year 2024 is N703 billion, which has already been signed into law by Governor Dapo Abiodun. The budget would capitalize on Internally Generated Revenue , which would give room for more capital expenditure for infrastructural development.
The State Internally Generated Revenue is projected at N240 Billion, with the expected Federal Allocations at N182 Billion.
The possibility of over taxation of residents is ruled out as the state has put in place a financial reengineering policy that would be adopted to meet up with the targeted revenue.
The State is also creating a conducive environment that will attract the private sector to invest and do business with ease through the creation of economic development clusters and reduction of the cost of doing business.
The state Commissioner for Finance, Dapo Okubadejo stated these while speaking at a media parley on the breakdown of the approved year 2024 budget in Abeokuta, the state capital.
Okubadejo explained that the budget reflects the determined vision of Governor Abiodun’s administration to foster best-in-class governance, create a conducive environment for public-private partnerships, and achieve sustainable economic development while enhancing individual prosperity among its citizen.
“Ogun State is ambitiously positioning itself to become the hub for industrialization, logistics, and knowledge—an aspiration integral to achieving the status of the most economically viable state in Nigeria and Africa and with its considerable land size, proximity advantages, ongoing industrialization, and robust infrastructure, is actively creating an investor-friendly environment,” he said.
The Commissioner for Finance noted that the administration is not only strategizing to achieve greater heights in economy but also ensuring the strategies are executed well, noting that the key economic objectives of the government centres on job creation, food security, poverty eradication and increased investment.
While asked about the debt profile of the state, Okubadejo , who is also the Chief Economic Adviser to the governor, explained that the entire team has been very careful about the type of debt it incurs and most particularly, the kind of investment such debts are used for.
He disclosed that some of the external loans incurred by the state are long term loans used as working capital with largely 80 to 90 percent of such deployed to fund capital expenditures that have the potentialities of increasing the state’s revenue base.
“For those of you who are always concerned about the debt position of Ogun State, there is no course for alarm: in fact, you should all go and sleep because not only are we careful with the type of loans we take, we are also judiciously utilizing the debts for capital infrastructure that will increase our revenue and improve the economy base and we have the capacity to pay back”.
“As practicable as possible, we look for long term loans and we are even far below the limit of all the sustainability ratio of debts for any state as set by the Federal Debts Management Office . In some cases, because we are opening the economy of the state to private sector investors, as we crystalize these investments, we hand them over to Private investors for concessioning”. Okubadejo said.
The Ogun state 2024 budget is strategically structured around key development pillars, which includes infrastructure, social welfare, education, human capital development, youth empowerment, job creation, agriculture, and food security.
Olusola Akintonde
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