Lagos, Ogun are Nigeria’s most economically viable states – Economic Confidential

A report by Economic Confidential, a subsidiary of PR Nigeria, has shown that Lagos and Ogun States are Nigeria’s most economically viable states.

While pointing to Ogun State’s status as Nigeria’s topmost investment destination after Lagos, the report showed that the Gateway state outperformed Rivers State, which joined Lagos and Ogun on the list of economically viable states for the year 2022, along with Kaduna, Kwara, Oyo and Edo States.

According to Economic Confidential, the report, compiled from figures released by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), showed that while Lagos received the sum of N370, 921, 413, 425.62 from the Federation Account and generated N651,145, 633.085 as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), while Ogun received N113,404, 027,439.22 from the Federation Account and generated N120,548, 157,140.78 internally.

The third most economically viable state, Rivers, received N363.4billion from the Federation Account and generated N172billion; followed by Kaduna State which received N155billion and generated N58billion.

Others are Kwara which received N99billion and generated N35.7billion; Oyo received N181bn and generated N62billion, while Edo received N147billion in federal allocation and generated N47.4billion.

The results were made known during the presentation of the 2022 Annual States Viability Index Report in Abuja, showing that the total Internally Generated Revenue of N1.5trillion from the seven most viable states in 2022, was almost twice the total IGR of 29 states together that merely generated about N650billion.

Six states, however, including Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, and Katsina states, failed to generate up to 10% of the total allocations received from the Federal Government for 2022 and were declared insolvent states.

The six states that may not survive without the Federation Account due to their extremely poor internal revenue generation of less than 10% compared to their federal allocations are Bayelsa, Katsina and Akwa Ibom, with Bayelsa bottom of the list with N273billion federal allocation and only N15.9billion IGR, representing 5.81% of the allocations.

Kebbi State with N119billion FAAC allocation and N9billion IGR (7.67%) joins Katsina (N165billion FAAC allocation and N13billion IGR, (7.90%) on the list of economically unviable states, along with Akwa Ibom, which received N360billion and generated N34.8billion (9.66%); Taraba, which received N103billion and generated N10.2billion (9.91%); and Yobe, which received N105billion and generated N10.4billion (9.91%).

According to the report, the poorly performing states were unable to attract investments due to socio-political and economic crises, including insurgency, kidnapping, armed banditry, and herdsmen-farmers clashes.