By natural design as well as accident of location, Ogun State, one of the six states in South West Nigeria, is increasingly becoming a vibrant industrial hub. In a multi-pronged approach, the state government is creating an environment that attracts more investments to the state. In this interview with CHUKA UROKO, BusinessDay’s Property Editor, RONKE SOKEFUN, the state’s Commissioner for Urban and Regional Planning, offers insights into uncommon strategies that are making things happen in the state. She also speaks on the Ogun Standard, Mission to Rebuild mantra, Ogun Homeowners Charter, among other salient issues. Excerpts:
Effective urban and regional planning is, arguably, an indicator of the economic growth of any entity, be it federal or state. How true is this of Ogun State?
You are very right in your summation. Ogun State has a very vibrant urban and regional plan and the execution of that plan starts from this ministry. We do this in terms of planning urban centres or developing and upgrading semi-urban centres to urban and the rural areas to semi-urban areas.
The aim of this administration is to ensure that development comes into Ogun State and that is why at Shagamu inter-change, you see a lot of industries springing up. There you see Olam, Nestle, Honeywell, CDK which is the second largest sanitary ware products manufacturers in the world, etc. We are taking advantage of our nearness to Lagos, knowing that Lagos is landlocked. More and more investors are coming in. We are therefore, more or less, toeing the line of regional planning.
Your closeness to Lagos is really a huge economic advantage. How are you leveraging this advantage to grow your economy?
I have just said that Lagos is landlocked which makes us a natural fit. When it comes to the issue of where people go next for citing industries, we are the number one choice. If you look at the records on the entire foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country in the last couple of years, about 75 percent of that came into Ogun alone. You can’t fault this record because it came directly from the office of the statistician general of the federation at Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS). A lot of factories are springing up here and it has been one commissioning after another. Procter and Gamblewas commissioned just a couple of weeks ago by the acting president.
Some Lagos state workers reside in Ogun and you know what the law says about residence. The law says you should pay your tax where you reside. When the immediate past governor of Lagos State was there, we had a couple of meetings on that issue and some agreements were reached. There were some sacrifices not based on statistics. But, whether Lagos likes it or not, it is landlocked and we are the new destination.
We have our standard called the Ogun Standard which is benchmarked against the world’s best standards. We have made rules for ourselves and told ourselves that those rules are our benchmark. We are not looking at Nigeria and saying this is our benchmark; we are looking at the world’s best practices.
In terms of internally generated revenue (IGR) of the state, the whole of the South West states generate about N404 billion annually and Lagos alone generates N301 of that amount. We are on N79 billion plus and that, I know, is more than the IGR of many states put together. In the south west, we are the second highest after Lagos.
Observers of developments in Ogun say that beyond what is happening in Abeokuta, the state capital, no development is taking place anywhere else in the state. How true is this?
I am from the Western part of the state. I am from a town called Ayetoro. This town is located in Yewa North local government area of the state. That town today has a six-lane road which is an Ogun Standard road. For years, there had been accidents on the expressway to Benin at Ijebu Ode, but this administration has constructed a bridge across the expressway to prevent more accidents. Inside Ijebu Ode Township, two more bridges have been constructed to control traffic.
With such infrastructural developments, it beats me when people say development is concentrated in Abeokuta. But this is the state capital so it will naturally enjoy more attention. Even at that, the bulk of roads being constructed now are statewide. There is a 32 killometre road here that no previous governor in the state has done. The road runs all the way from Sango Otta to Akute, near Ojodu Berger. Five bridges are being constructed on that road right now. As we speak, there is also a bridge that is being completed in Ijebu Igbo. There is another bridge being done in Otta right now to control traffic in that axis.
If you walk through the Agbara-Igbesa-Otta road, you see a lot of abandoned estate projects because of poor state of that road. What is the state government thinking about that axis?
The contract for that road has been awarded. Some buildings have been demolished to give way for the reconstruction of that road. Funds have been made available for that project, not just mobilization. Contractors have mobilised to site. I can assure you that in the next six months, work must have gone far on that road.
But how would you control developments in that axis so that you don’t end up with an urban slum?
There is no way you will not have illegal developments, but you have to control that to a reasonable extent. What we are trying to do is not out of place because you realize that developmental activities are always tied to what the government does in terms of acquisition. So, we do have a number of acquisitions across the state. For instance, around the Shagamu interchange, we have 1.5 kilometre acquisition on both sides of the road. So, if anyone wants to do any construction on that axis, government’s approval must first be obtained. Those wanting to build estates must also seek approval for their layout plans and development approvals. That’s how we treat such cases.
There is no doubt really that Ogun is becoming an industrial hub. But are you building new roads and creating new layouts to befit this status?
Right now we are working on a 107 km road which hitherto did not link seamlessly. Work has commenced and will continue to expand. Our focus is mainly on roads because we want to open Ogun to investors. We believe that without infrastructure, you can’t have any meaningful development, be it industrial or economic. We believe too that both industrial goods and farm produce can only find their way out of the state when there is a good network of roads.
Anywhere in the world, planning goes with budgeting. How much of the state’s budget goes into opening up the state for investment?
Government’s focus is encapsulated in its five cardinal programmes. Education is the first priority closely followed by health. This is also followed by agriculture which leads to industrialization. The next is housing and then rural development. My ministry features in the housing sector. On your way to this place you must have seen the President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) Estate, the Orange Valley Estate, the New Makun City, etc. All these estates were conceptualized by the ministry of housing and its subsidiaries—the Ogun State Property Investment Corporation (OPIC) and Ogun Housing Corporation.
When we meet, we look at how all these will lead to developments which are not concentrated here in Abeokuta but rolled out in other parts of the state. We are in talks currently with the World Bank to fund some of our developmental projects. So far, it is looking good. We are looking at the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and how important that corridor is to open it up for further development. There will be foot bridges and lay-bys on that expressway even though it is a federal government road.
It is important to point out here that before the World Bank advances such loan to the government, it will look, among other things, at their ease of doing business. When we came in 2011, there was a World Bank report which ranked the state 35th out of 36 states of the federation in ease of doing business. For us as a government, it became imperative to change that narrative. All hands were on deck and in 2014, we climbed several steps up to the 4th position.
It is interesting that housing is a priority in this state. Housing and land go together. Out there, people say that your land policies are too stringent to encourage development. What’s your reaction to this?
Land acquisition is of two types. You either buy privately or you get allocation from government. We observed upon assumption of office that there was no systemic process to land acquisition. The truth is that we took our land for granted even when it is our own oil.
When this government came in during its 1st term, it set up a commission to enquire into land matters between 2004 and 2011. Several far-reaching decisions were taken and work commenced on correcting the correctables.
But when you talk on issues like governor’s consent and certificate of occupancy, I will not sit down here and tell you the work is perfect. Things are probably not as fast as people want them to be. But I want to say it again that we are a work in progress. I do know that some of the complaints we get on land administration have been communicated to the governor and my colleague in lands is taking action on them.
My targets when I was in Lands Bureau were process engineering/mapping and to launch the Geographic Information Systems. A lot of things have been done on this and one good thing is that the EDMS aspect is up and running which means a lot of documents including Cof O and surveys have been uploaded into the system. This also means that when people come and do searches, instead of manually looking through files, they just press the button and that is done.
Our target is to create a website where land buyers can access information online and also pay online. When the system is up and running, it will eliminate delays in processing documents and even save cost. People will have access to information and that reduces interface with ministry officials. It will also ease whatever constraints we have at the moment. The reduced human interface will also minimize corruption.
The Ogun Homeowners Charter came up smoking, but suddenly went down. What is the current status of that charter and how huge is the discount you are promising homeowners?
The discount is really huge because I know what the governor did was to peg approval fees at below N100,000. And this is coming from individual assessment that could be anything above N200,000 for a bungalow or four-bedroom flat. There has been a bit of downtime in the implementation of the charter. A lot of activity is ongoing aimed at restarting the process. We want people to know that the charter is still on-going. A lot of people have abandoned their applications but, luckily, on the application forms we have phone numbers. Presently, we have about 20 youth corps members who will be involved in creating awareness on this charter through radio jingles and other aspects of mass communication. More C-of-Os will be rolled out. People will be getting titles for their land and approvals for their building.
What are your projections for achieving your dream of becoming an industrial hub; where will Ogun State be in the next three to four years?
When we seek support from international donor agencies and financial institutions like the World Bank you can never work with one-year projection. In fact, their medium term projection is about 15 years. Naturally, there is no one that does not want to see that whatever he has done are sustained. This is our governor’s vision of Ogun. He is passionate about it and is already working on it. I know that the governor has put together a wonderful team comprising people that can hold their own and continue what the governor started. The mantra for the state is “mission to rebuild the state” and the five cardinal points on which the state is working are anchored on this mission which we have all bought into.
For someone like me, it never occurred to me I would work in public service. I have been in private sector all my life. I left Oando as Chief Legal Officer in 2011 to join this administration. I have never looked back ever since. Here we are working for the people and every step we take impacts directly on them. Honestly, it is one of the best experiences of my life. So, for me, I can only hope that the dream which the governor has comes to fruition by way of finding a worthy successor.
Transiting from the private to the public sector is a no mean feat. Having tasted the two worlds now, where do you hope to be after this assignment as commissioner?
I am someone that is moved by the flow but that does not mean I don’t have plans for my life. I do. Every step I take is guided by what I seek to achieve as a person. Right now, I am willing to continue to serve Ogun State and its people. If there is an opportunity for me to do more to serve the state at any other level or forum, I am open to that opportunity. But, honestly, I have enjoyed public sector experience as it affords the opportunity to add measurable value to society.
