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Business News of Thursday, 12 January 2023

Source: thenationonlineng.net

Ogun eyes new investment inflows with N472b budget

Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun

The Ogun State Government is working on attracting more domestic and foreign investments to the state with the N472.2 billion budget for 2023.

The budget themed: ‘Budget of Continued Development and Prosperity’ has already been signed by the Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun.

Speaking yesterday at the budget presentation/ media parley in Abeokuta, Chief Economic Adviser/ Commissioner for Finance, Ogun State, Dapo Okubadejo, said the state has positioned itself as a manufacturing hub of the economy, and will continue to take major steps to attract more domestic and foreign investments to the economy.

He said that as a trade corridor, the state is in strategic location and proximity to many States, commands good rating in respect of ease of doing business in Nigeria. The state has comparative advantage as seen in its three Free Trade Zones (FTZs) – Olokola FTZ, Igbesa FTZ and Kajola FTZ, even as industrial investment hubs mostly share resources, hence benefit from economies of scale.

He said the budget prioritised empowerment for the people, infrastructure development and expanding its investment frontiers.

“We are committed to making Ogun state the preferred investment destination for local and international investors. We also interacted with the people on what they expect from the budget, including their preferred infrastructure and other development plans.”

Okubadejo said the state has done well as a manufacturing-based economy, and would also graduate to be a service-based economy as it explores the opportunities that segment of the economy holds, as well as improved focus on Public Private Partnership (PPP).

The state also adopted the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) year 2022 broad parameters of the financing mix baseline shall be sustained in the MTEF 2023 to 2025.

The budget breakdown showed that the N472 billion budget will be financed with revenue from Ogun State Internal Revenue Service – N90 billion; revenue from other Ministries, Departments and Agencies – N120.2 billion; opening balance – N41.6 billion; capital receipts – N128.37 billion; statutory allocation – N50.7 billion; excess crude – N3.8 billion; and Value Added Tax – N37.4 billion.

However, N31.8 billion loan will be sourced externally, while N84.8 billion will be borrowed internally bringing the total debt plan for the year to N116.6 billion.

On the budget expenditure plan, he said N19.4 billion will be spent on Infrastructure, education will gulp N72 billion, health, N51.4 billion, housing and community development, N29.8 billion among others.

He added “We adopted the Medium Term Revenue Strategy to drive the state budget from the revenue angle, rather than the traditional expenditure base approach. A realistic policy-driven model (bottom-up approach) guided by a proper and realistic revenue strategy. The Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) projection of N210.2 billion in 2023, N232.4 billion in 2024 and N281 billion in 2025.

Also, N91.9 billion will be received from Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) in 2023, N113.8 billion in 2024 and and N136 billion in 2025.

Capital receipts will also stand at N128 billion in 2023, N106 billion in 2024 and N62 billion in 2025.

Also speaking, Ogun State Commissioner for Budget & Planning, Olaolu Olabimtan, said the state has over the years achieved great milestones on budget performance.

He said the state will prioritize completion of existing projects, projects with revenue potential, projects consistent with priorities articulated in the State Economic Development Strategy and projects that can enhance employment generation.

He said there will be implementation of schemes for power generation to improve and guarantee electricity supply to our major cities, business clusters and estates; development of a Dry port at Kajola to leverage on the existing rail network in that axis, completion of the Agro-Cargo Airport, among other projects.