Ogun State among the first five richest states in nigeria

We are elated by the report. One should however try to appreciate its ramifications. By virtue of the size of allocation from the Federation Account in the year reviewed by the economic magazine, Ogun is number 25.

That means 24 out of the 36 states in the country got more money from Abuja than Ogun State. As a matter of fact, except Ekiti State, Ogun collects the least from the Federation Account among the South-West states. But we are number four out of the 36 states in terms of the size of our IGR. Again, when you compare the IGRs of states to what they receive from the Federation Account (in terms of percentage), Ogun is number four among the 36 states.

This is what the findings of the Economic Confidential reveal. In comparison to the situation of the state before Amosun mounted the saddle of leadership, it shows we have leap-fogged economically. And this should not come as a surprise when you have a technocrat-politician as governor. I guess you know that the state governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria with track records of achievements in the private sector. Lest I forget, there was the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report released in April this Year. The NBS rated Ogun State as number one among the 36 states of the federation in terms of percentage improvement of the Internally Generated Revenues between 2014 and 2015.

Our state can be said to be first among equals in this regard. The vision of the governor is for the state to depend less and less on funds from the Federation Account. These are reports of independent institutions. They show the quantum of progress made under the Amosun administration in terms of financial re-engineering. In a nutshell, we are thrilled by the latest report but we are not exactly surprised because there is always a reward for hard work.