FACT-CHECK: How accurate is Akeredolu’s claim on Ondo’s monthly IGR?

CLAIMS:

• Ondo state’s monthly Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) has increased to over N1.5 billion
• Ondo state’s monthly IGR was previously N700 million before Akeredolu’s administration

CONCLUSION: For CLAIM 1, it is TRUE; for CLAIM 2, it is PARTLY FALSE

EVIDENCE: Ondo state’s monthly IGR has increased to over N1.5 billion with an average monthly IGR of N2.07 billion in 2018, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). However, NBS data also show that Ondo state’s average monthly IGR from 2012 to 2015 has been more than N700 million, except in 2016 when it fell by 14 percent to N723.7 million.

FULL TEXT:

Ondo State governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, on Tuesday, May 8, while receiving members of the state chapter of the Association of Licensed Private Security Practitioners of Nigeria in his office in Akure said his administration has improved the monthly IGR of the state from N700 million to over N1.5 billion.

What this means is that the state under his administration has grown its IGR by more than double to over N1.5 billion monthly compared to N700 million which the state recorded previously as IGR.

No date was quoted or referenced in the report. But emphasis was made on his administration.

BusinessDay could not reach the governor to clarify the claim, but a statement issued by a press officer in the governor’s office, Bode Akinwumi, confirmed he made the statement.

According to the statement, Akeredolu said his “administration has so far improved its (Ondo state) IGR from N700 million monthly to over N1.5 billion monthly.”

CONTEXT

Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, was sworn into office on February 24, 2017, in Akure, succeeding Olusegun Mimiko as Ondo State governor. Since no timeframe was mentioned in the first claim, Gov. Akeredolu may have also been implying that not only was the state’s monthly IGR as low as N700 million before his administration, but that he has also greatly increased the monthly IGR during this administration.

As such, we will consider the average monthly IGR from 2008 – 2018.

ONDO MONTHLY IGR MORE THAN N1.5 BILLION

According to IGR data at state level for the year 2018 obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s official repository of data, Ondo State generated N3.61 billion as IGR in the first three months of 2018. The amount rose to N5.81 billion in the second quarter of the year, spanning from April through June.

However, the revenue receipt of the state fell slightly to N5.04 billion in the third quarter compared to the previous quarter but rebounded in the last quarter of the year to N10.33 billion, bringing the total IGR of the state for the year to N24.79 billion. This represents a 126.8 percent increase when compared with N10.93 billion generated a year earlier.

With the sum of N24.79 billion generated internally by the state in 2018, we decided to divide the amount by 12, which indicates the number of months in a year, to obtain the state’s average monthly IGR. This results in N2.07 billion monthly IGR.

ONDO GENERATED MORE THAN N700 MILLION BEFORE AKEREDOLU’S ADMINISTRATION

BusinessDay gathered the state’s IGR statistics from 2008 to 2018 in order to properly evaluate the accuracy of the governor’s claim on improving the state revenue from N700 million monthly. We discovered that in 2008, the sum of N3.98 billion was generated, translating to N332 million average monthly IGR.

That amount shrank to N312.7 million in 2009 but grew to N540 million monthly in 2010. The growth in Ondo state’s average monthly IGR was continuously extended in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 to N668 million, N846 million, N875 million, and N977 million, respectively.

In 2015, an average of N842 million was generated in Ondo state every month. It dropped to N724 million in 2016 and rose to N911 million in 2017, implying the state’s average monthly IGR has remained over N700 million since 2012.

CONCLUSION

Governor Akeredolu’s claim that Ondo state monthly IGR has increased to over N1.5 billion was TRUE as the state generated an average monthly IGR of N2.07 billion in 2018. However, his claim that his administration improved the state IGR from N700 million was PARTLY FALSE as the state average monthly IGR from 2012 to 2015 has been more than N700 million, except in 2016 when it fell by 14 percent to N723.7 million.