Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State

By Soyombo Opeyemi

I am yet to contain the  event of Tuesday, 19^th of July, 2016 at the Government House, Oke Igbein, Abeokuta. It was the Breakfast Meeting with the Organised Private Sector. For days I remained in thrall to this wonder. It was simply mind-boggling, exhilarating.  Even Managing Directors of some blue chip companies almost could not secure seats.

I am not a prophet. Indeed, you do not need any power of prognosis or gift of clairvoyance to know that the breakfast event reveals that Ogun State will sooner than later industrially attain a larger than life image and bulge at the seams by the sheer number of industries that will compete for space in its domains.

The chief host, Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, is indeed capable of pulling off pleasant surprises. Six years ago, no one would have imagined that this state would witness this scale of infrastructural development. None could have predicted it.

If Ogun State, due to the enabling environment provided by the current administration, consistently takes over seventy per cent (70%) of total investments in Nigeria, where then is it easiest to do business in Nigeria?

 

On January 16, 2015, former President Olusegun Obasanjo received a delegation of  Igbo leaders from Lagos and Ogun States in his residence in Abeokuta. The media was awash with what transpired at the event.

“Chief Obasanjo said that performance as against party loyalty should be the overriding factor for the electorate in voting for candidates in the elections… though he does not belong to the same party as Amosun, he cannot deny that the governor’s  performance in the last four years has been sterling… Obasanjo  told them  and other non-indigenes in  the state  to return Amosun to office so that  his infrastructural and the   urban renewal projects   could be sustained.

“In 2011, we were not together. We were together before and I did campaign against him. See what he has been able to do in the last three and a half years in the state. I cannot sacrifice performance for party. I never dreamt of having a bridge on a dry land in Ogun State in my life time. Yes, we have Ogun River, where there is a bridge. Go to Ijebu, Sagamu, Ota, what am I seeing? Bridges, not even one, two or three. So, my people, I am not talking about other elections. I have come to tell you that in order to appreciate what this personality has been able to do in the last three and a half years, let us give him our votes. What happened in 2011 was politics, and we can all see the difference between politics and personality,” Obasanjo said.

In Ogun, investors get rebates on land, good road network and better security of plants, machinery and assets in industrial zones while certain types of taxes paid by these investors in Lagos are also accepted by the state, thus preventing them from paying multiple levies in two states.

I indicated earlier that some Chief Executive Officers could only secure seats at the back because the attendance was so overwhelming. It is better to talk about those who did not come – if there was any that one could recall – than attempt to list the industrialists in attendance. It was a gathering of ‘who is who’ in Nigeria’s business firmament. Just mention one industrialist of note in the country, he or she was there. The same held for any major company in Nigeria. In essence, the whole business elite in Nigeria converged on Abeokuta.

The annual breakfast meeting with the governor, organized by the Ministry of Commerce, provides a face-to-face opportunity for industrialists/ investors to interact with the state’s helmsman, to appraise his genuineness and commitment to creating and sustaining an environment conducive to investments in the state, as against relying only on media reports. It has been a win-win situation for the investors and government.

The Senator Ibikunle Amosun administration hosted the first breakfast meeting with industrialists and investors in the annals of Ogun State.  Let’s recall somewhat in parenthesis the situation of the state before the current government was inaugurated in 2011. The  World Bank (DOING BUSINESS REPORT) in 2008 and 2010, ranked Ogun State as one of the lowest overall performers among the 36 states in Nigeria in terms of ease of doing business. In other words, Ogun State was by then not conducive to business. From 2012 when the breakfast with investors  began, each event has  witnessed an improvement over the previous one, indeed an indication of the progressive economic  development of the state under the current government.

I never dreamt of having a bridge on a dry land in Ogun State in my life time. Yes, we have Ogun River, where there is a bridge. Go to Ijebu, Sagamu, Ota, what am I seeing? Bridges, not even one, two or three.

I do not immediately recall now which institution first noticed early in the life of the Amosun administration the signs that Ogun was about to attain a turning point in industrialization. But I recall the award given by the Management and Board of Editors of Business Day in 2013. The leading business newspaper declared Ogun State the fastest-growing economy and first choice for industrialists and entrepreneurs among the 36 states in Nigeria. According to the financial newspaper, Ogun State won the prestigious award “because it has the highest number of businesses established in its domain and that the government has made the environment more attractive to investors. Ogun also has the highest positive number of Gross Domestic Product in the last one year, the number of bank branches has increased more than that of other states in the last three years and its financial inclusion, particularly the embrace of cashless economy and use of Automated Teller Machine by residents had increased tremendously.”

The report of the World Bank, Doing Business in Nigeria 2014, puts a stamp of authority on the successes recorded under the current government when it  rates Ogun, out of 35 states and FCT, as one of the five states “that  made the biggest strides towards the national frontier of good practices.”

As if to cap it all, the report of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, released towards the end of 2015, provides staggering statistics, and from these, among others, we understand why the business community in Nigeria converged on Ogun for the breakfast meeting with the technocrat-politician governor, who is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria.

It seems if your business is not in Ogun State, you are probably not in the business map of Nigeria!   Out of about N691.77 billion invested in Nigeria in 2014, N514.87 billion (representing 74.43 per cent of all investments) went to Ogun State. Again, from the N180.12 billion invested in the whole of manufacturing and agro-allied companies in the first half of the year 2015, N128.3 billion (representing 71.23 percent) went to Ogun.

If Ogun State, due to the enabling environment provided by the current administration, consistently takes over seventy per cent (70%) of total investments in Nigeria, where then is it easiest to do business in Nigeria? Why will any investor not be in Ogun State?

I should end this exercise with an extract from the editorial of Business Day of 17 February, 2016: “In Ogun, investors get rebates on land, good road network and better security of plants, machinery and assets in industrial zones while certain types of taxes paid by these investors in Lagos are also accepted by the state, thus preventing them from paying multiple levies in two states. For real estate developers, obtaining building permit, property registration and title documentation do not take forever while they don’t have to break the bank till to pay for all of these. It is pertinent to note that these incentives and favourable business environment are paying off…”

I congratulate the governor of Ogun State for these landmark achievements within such a short space of time.

**Soyombo sent this piece from Abeokuta via [email protected]