Ola one:
Wrong.
Architecturally, we are okay.
Services, we are far behind. Budget hotels abroad give better services compared with naija '5'-star ones

Rossikk: I've been all over and believe me, foreign hotels are over rated. Most are no better or worse than their Nigerian counterparts.

Rossikk: It is not the only five star hotel in Nigeria.

chino24: [s][/s]


Same Trash! which does not reflect reality! Same newspaper generated IGR..

Where is the job in Oshun, if not O-yes, O-this and O-that? lmao! Is there any meaningful source of employment in oshun other than the oshun poorly paid civil servants? Is there meaningful private organized sector in oshun if not petty cocoa sellers?

I tell you, Nnewi alone has an economy bigger and more advanced than entire oshun state, by the time we add other Anambra cities then you would understand what we are talking about. Any state can go to media and quote anything just like oshun has done but in reality we all know that they have got nothing except nothing! Anambra kept its real IGR status out of media glance for a reason, which am aware of as an insider.

There are only few state that has verifiable and strong sources of IGR viz-a-viz: Lagos, River, Anambra and Kano!

grafikii: Oh i forgot, kfc also has a store in Ibadan and has been operating for 2yrs now even before the opened one in the nations capital. I know someday they will get to the south east

chino24:


Nwokem forget about all these newspaper based IGR. In the real terms it is only few states as Lagos, Rivers, Anambra and Kano that has a very strong IGR base and are capable of improving on the said IGR due to high economic activities going on there.

I still cannot understand how Oshun is generating even N500 million. Is there anything happening in Oshun if not civil servants based economy?

grafikii:
Don't be deceived by paper policies, find out from those on ground, you will get a clear picture.

agbameta:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjRNE-f9QQM&feature=youtu.be

IGR: The real test of state viability
Internally-generated revenue (IGR), a composite of revenue sources (tax, royalties, custom duties and levies) that once sustained Nigeria and its federating entities, has become virtually neglected because of the flow of petroleum dollars. Many states in the federation simply do not see any reason to exert appreciable amount of energy to develop this time-tested source of revenue when they can get rich from their statutory share of the oil money without sweat.

Not all the states are guilty, as some have bested others in their duty to generate and collect IGR. In the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Annual Report of 2011, total revenue of the state governments increased by 7.8 percent to N3,410.1 billion, or 9.6 percent of GDP, compared with N3,162.5 billion or 10.7 percent of GDP in 2010. The analysis of the sources of revenue indicates that allocation from IGR was N509.3 billion, or 14.9 percent. However, the IGR fell below the level in 2010 by 32.8 percent, indicating a slowdown in the drive for internal revenue.

The CBN further explained that in terms of tax efforts, measured as the ratio of IGR to total revenue (IGR/TR), Lagos State ranked highest with 54.9 percent, followed by Abia with 37.1 percent, and Ogun with 28.7 percent, while Borno State ranked the least with 3.4 percent. In terms of state governments’ effort at improving IGR, Ondo State topped, with an increased IGR/TR ratio from 2.1 percent in 2010 to 8.6 percent in 2011, followed in the second place by Kogi, and Bauchi in the third position. Overall, the consolidated IGR/TR ratio of the state governments fell from 24.0 percent in 2010 to 14.9 percent. For many states, it is still work-in-progress.

Maybe the ratio of IGR to total revenue shouldn’t just be a measure of tax efforts but to what extent a state is considered viable in the absence of petroleum dollars; and this is the crux of the matter. On this basis, it would seem that some of the states today may have been created purely for all other reasons other than their financial viability. And many more people still clamour for the creation of more states with, I believe, no consideration for internal fiscal capacity. If the states would capture the gains of today’s stream of revenue from oil to build tomorrow’s stream from non-oil sources, then we would have no problem, but that isn’t what we are seeing.

In a previous article in this column, I had observed that the question of whether the oil reserve will run out is no longer the issue, but whether the world will continue to need and buy our oil. I noted that the calculus of when the reserve will dry up has become moot and should no longer be factored into long-term planning. I advised that the assumption that we will have a glut of oil that nobody wants should be what drives our investment strategy. If the states pay enough attention, maybe they can begin to identify sources of internal revenue and reinvigorate their generating efforts.

In these efforts, every state shall be the architect of its own fortune. It is true that by virtue of age, location, infrastructural, natural and human endowments, some states have proven better placed than the others but each state can find within its boundaries areas where it holds a competitive advantage that could be well developed. And all states have the key to unlock that great agricultural or mineral potential that is Nigeria.

The answer is to open up the state economies to all comers, irrespective of their state of origin and nationality, through sound economic policies that are investor-friendly and devoid of discrimination in any manner whatsoever.

Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru noted in a paper she delivered at The Women Development Centre, Awka, Anambra State on October 11, 2010 thus: “Agricultural and farming potentials exist in all the eastern states and there is quite a large deposit of mineral resources among the states: large deposit of bitumen and laterite, phosphate, lead, zinc, copper, coal, iron, natural gas, gypsum, talc, iron, etc.” She also mentioned that “there are tourism potentials in all the states to boost the hospitality industry.” She concluded that “the states really do have the potentials for growth and development.” With the potentials, so also is the ability of each state in the federation to be fiscally self-sufficient.

Many states are indeed exploring all possible avenues to expand their IGR base – and progress and success are at different levels – but a majority of the states focus more on taxes and levies, which in themselves are riddled with sharp practices and are a source of discontent to many of their citizens. I will hope that the entire country will listen attentively to Omoigui-Okauru.

If today a severely conservative 10 percent IGR/TR threshold is used as a test of a state’s fiscal viability, more than a quarter of the states, some of which receive very generous share of the oil money, would flunk. This is the degree to which they rely solely on statutory allocations and a measure of their low preparedness to weather exogenous financial shock, if one does occur. Hence a lot of work remains to be done.

Osun's Monthly IGR Jumps from N300million to N1.6billion in 3 years.
Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State has disclosed that his passion with Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in developing people and economies has paid off, with the state’s monthly internally generated revenue now standing at N1.6 billion. 
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/ict-lifts-osun-s-monthly-generated-revenue-to-n1-6bn/159931/

deor03: What is the attaraction for people to sell things close to rail lines in Nigeria ?

holuwashezy: Impact what? If he really merit dis award it means we didn't av governor who positively impact lives of his people, or dis pple doesn't know d meaning of impacting some1's life .

Gbawe:
I think so too. There is a current debate in the UK about more children going to school hungry because economic hardship is leading to greater financial challenges for parent. This is how worried administrators are over the issue of children being well-fed before they go to school due to the established link between educational success and eating healthy meals.

When you then realise that Osun runs the most comprehensive school feeding program in Nigeria then one can appreciate that Aregbesola has been "impactful". Osun, small and financially challenged as it is, currently provides around 80% of all school meals served in Nigeria. Commendable. When one then thinks of his overall efforts in tourism, youth employment, Agriculture, Infrastructure, education et al then it is obvious this is a governor making an impact with the little he gets.

amarilo: I have not seen anybody that said he/she is from Abuja. More over is Abuja a state of LG.

1MCN:
Pardon it if I've touched your sensitivity. I might sound extrapolative but I still believe Egwu and now Elechi have been terribly irresponsible and irresponsive in Ebonyi state. Yes there are youths from all states of the federation hawking on our highways, even youths from oilproducing communities in Imo, Abia, Bayelsa, Rivers, Edo, Delta, Oyo, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and indeed other parts of Nigeria!

bloggernaija: AREGBERASCAL
A man with a cause.
Believe me when I say that spiritually , I feel aregbesola more than any yoruba leader.
He is true awoist who doesn't shy away from a fight.
He is not afraid to display his socialist and welfarist ideology .
I LIKE IT COS i am from the same iddeological family.
He uses government spending to stimulate the local economy and to start whole industries.
That way, most of the money stays within the state

ozor333: When GMT Technology already In Enugu waiting for licence.

Funnicator: I don't support any party. I rather support individuals.
I must say Aregbesola is a gentleman Governor and a man of virtue.
He is very much better than Governor Fashola in disparate sectors.
A man that met Osun state in shambles and transformed it into a beacon of hope for the entire country is to be respected.
Oni is a virtuos man!

geeez: I won't be surprised if Osun State becomes the second biggest economy in Nigeria in less than 3yrs. Already for last year, it had one if the highest GDPs in the country

Well done Aregbe

chi 3280: They always seek for our endorsement then later they turn around to deport us. Isn't that amazing?

shymexx: Definitely not worth celebrating without a good structure. The huge population is the biggest factor here, however, what's the point of having the biggest economy with no infrastructures; poor banking structure; no middle-class and huge gap between rich and poor; no security etc.?

In other news: my shabby house with poor architecture and no plastering that's rodents ridden is also about to become the biggest house on my street. I need to celebrate!!

Pataki: What kind of a dunce is this man!

Boko Haram - "we are working very hard on that", how can a president make such a useless generic statement like that? Did this doofus of a president not learn from his Kenyan counterpart on how to address firmly the issue of terrorism in a country??

Well over 3000 people have died, our useless president is saying "the interviewer needs to update her statistics"!

When asked about sovereign funds, this dunce of a President immediately turned into a stammerer!

See the bunch of retardeenic sycophants trying to push Adeola away from asking questions to the President. What a disgrace Nigeria has become.

1MCN:
Ebonyi is a state where most of its natural resources are in the agricultural sector. The state has the capacity to produce enough grains, tubers, vegetables and fruits for the whole of the Southern Nigeria, and even more for export but that state has been very unfortunate with bad leaders esp govs. Agriculture is one the largest employers of labour (if not the very highest), but yet most of the young boys you find trading on wares on our national highways are from Ebonyi! The state gov't just goes about stealing the monies that should be used to reform the economy of that state and give meaning to people's lives