Achieving real sector growth, eradicating poverty, creating jobs for the growing youthful population, and attracting private investments are key economic goals of the Ogun State government this year.
The South-West state is hoping to spend N338 billion in 2021 to taper the economic and health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Ogun residents, even as it plans to be the fastest-growing economy in Nigeria and maximise the potentials of every citizen.
Dapo Okubadejo, Ogun State commissioner of finance and chief economic adviser, said the government has also introduced a medium-term revenue mobilisation that will enable the state to grow revenues and attract more investments.
“We are targeting an average growth rate of 25 percent, as we target new businesses and encourage local talents and capacity, reduce cost of production by increasing availability of necessary infrastructure, drive technological innovations, improve access to credit and land for agricultural extension services, and improve on the ease of doing business to attract investments,” Okubadejo said while giving a breakdown of the state’s 2021 budget to the media on Thursday.
Okubadejo explained that the ambition of the Dapo Abiodun administration is to improve on the real sector and job creation, noting that the budget also targets poverty eradication and encourages investors.
Explaining that part of the vision of the state is a deliberate action to encourage private sector participation, he noted that Dapo Abiodun’s economic agenda would drive investments.
Okubadejo said the overall vision and strategic direction of “the present administration is to make the economy of the state the biggest in the country in a manner that would ensure real sector growth, create jobs and also significantly eradicate poverty amongst our people”.
The finance commissioner explained that to achieve these economic goals, the state would hinge on three policy thrusts, five developmental plans, and five key enablers.
The policy thrusts will include reforming government institutions, fiscal policy thrust and private sector participation. The developmental pillars will centre around infrastructure, social welfare and wellbeing, education and human development, youth empowerment and agriculture, while for the enablers, the state is betting on good governance structure, security, digital transformation, enabling business environment, and finance, investment and economic planning, Okubadejo said.
Tagged the ‘Budget of Recovery and Sustainability’, the 2021 budget earmarks about N148 billion or 51 percent for capital expenditure, while about 49 percent will go into paying salaries and overhead.
With an internally generated revenue target of N119 billion, the state government would expand the tax net, block leakages in tax collections and ensure all residents of the state pay taxes, according to Anthony Olaleye, executive chairman, Ogun State Internal Revenue Service.
“We are also working on the informal sector to see how we can generate more revenues internally,” Olalelye said.
In terms of sectoral allocation, the government gave attention to education, health, housing and community amenities, with allocation to each of the sectors coming to 17 percent, 10 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
Speaking on the agricultural sector, which he described as the major economic driver in the state, Adeola Odedina, commissioner for agriculture, said the state plans to expand the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) with the introduction of cotton, oil-palm and cocoa in 2021, just as 10,000 hectares of land has been allocated for the use of cotton farmers in the state.
Odedina added that the state government approved new framework for land use in the state, stating that access to land would become a seamless process in 2021.
He also noted that the state government would be stepping up its game in the new year with its engagement with the World Bank, International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the African Development Bank in its the bid to make the state the official special agro-processing zone.
“We also want to move into Anchor Borrowers Programme for cotton, oil palm and cocoa in 2021 and government already allocated 10,000 hectares of land to cotton farmers and we have also started work to link cocoa, oil-palm farmers in 2021,” Odedina said.
“We are going to step the game in 2021 with our engagement with the World Bank, IITA and particularly the African Development Bank in the bid to make Ogun State the official special agro-processing zone,” he said.
The commissioner, who further disclosed that the state would be concentrating on dam irrigation, said that the state would also be focusing on Climate Smart Agriculture, which he said would help to create more employment opportunities for the people.
Tomi Coker, commissioner for health, on her part disclosed that the ultimate vision of the present administration in the state was to provide an affordable and accessible and quality health care for every citizen of the state, noting that the government aims to reduce infant and maternal mortality by 25 percent in 2023 and improve life expectancy beyond 53 years.
The commissioner noted that the state government would implement the Basic Health Care Provision Fund and the Ogun State Health Insurance Scheme, saying the Basic Health Insurance Scheme involves the vulnerable, pregnant women and children between the ages of three and five who would have access to free healthcare services across the 20 local government areas of the state.
The commissioner said the state government is looking at developing a responsive and effective 24-hour ambulance service to support the health development programme and would also digitise all of its health records across all the three tiers of facilities in the state.
She explained the state would establish 236 primary health centres across various local governments areas of the state. It would also flag the provision of healthcare insurance schemes in the second quarter, and the enrolment of thousands of vulnerable, pregnant women, and children 0-5 to receive free treatments across LGAs.
“We succeeded in building 21 healthcare centres in the third quarter of last year and started the building of 22 in the fourth quarter. This year, we hope to complete the 193 remaining,” the commissioner said.
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