By Pascal Ibe

The internally generated revenue (IGR) is regarded as income generated by various states in the country, independent of their share of the revenue from the Federation Account. However, apart from the clear exception of Lagos State, all others depend largely on statutory allocations to run their state affairs.

IGR per population estimates the average amount of revenue generated by the government of the state per individual living in the state.

IGR per population was computed by dividing the states’ IGR by their estimated population size for each prevailing year. The states’ population estimated was based on figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s statistical bulletin, while further projections were made by Nairalytics following their respective population growth rate.

On June 30, 2024, an X user Ifa Funsho claimed that Ogun State in Southwest part of Nigeria generates more revenue internally than the five stated in the Southeast.

The post with an image reads, “This is Ogun state. Yoruba land in Nigeria. The State that Generate more IGR than the 5 states in the South East“.

Many commenters disagreed with this claim. While other said despite Ogun’s high IGR, the state is still very much undeveloped.

Verification

In a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in October 2023, Ogun State was ranked fourth with N120.6bn as its IGR in 2022.

The NBS disclosed that a total of N1.93 trillion was generated across the 36 states in Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory in 2022 Internally Generated Revenue.

The data stated Lagos, Rivers and FCT top the list with N651.15 billion, N172.89 billion, and N124.4 billion, respectively while the least states on the list are Kebbi (N9.1 billion), Taraba (N10.2 billion), Yobe (N10.5bn).

The list showed that Anambra is on 12th with N33.9bn, Enugu State ranked 14th with N28.7bn,

Abia ranked 20th with N20.1bn, Imo 22nd with N19.3bn and Ebonyi bellow generated only N12.4bn in 2022.

Read the 2022 Internal Generated Revenue at States Level Here

In the first half (H1) of 2021, data from the National Bureau of Statistics revealed that Lagos, Abuja, and Ogun State led the list of states in Nigeria with the highest internally generated revenue per population.

Ogun State recorded an increase of 124% in its IGR per population to N8,908 in the first half of 2021, with an estimated population size of 6.15 million people. While comparing to N5,135 recorded in H1 2019, it increased by 73.5%.

Ogun State, which is a neighbouring state to Lagos and hosts notable manufacturing plants such as Dangote Cement Plant, Lafarge plant amongst others, boasted of an IGR of N54.82 billion in the period under review, jumping by 131.5% compared to N23.68 billion recorded in the same period of 2020.

Analysis by Nairametrics showed that in H1 of 2021, The Southwestern region of the country boasts of the highest IGR per population with aggregate revenue of N385.41 billion, resulting in an N8,575 IGR per population. The region grew its revenue by 37.3% compared to N6,243 recorded in the corresponding period of 2020.

South-South region followed with an average of N4,626.99 revenue per individual, having recorded an 8.8% increase from N4,253 recorded in the previous year, closely followed by North Central with N3,745.83.

See the full data of H1 of 2021 Internal Generated Revenue at States Level Here

Note that the 2023 IGR report at states level is not yet out now (July 2024) .

Verdict

The claim by an X user is Correct.

Data from 2022 and H1 of 2021 indicated that Ogun state generates more Internal Generated Revenue than all states in the Southeast.