By Ismaeel Uthman
The state of Osun has been ranked second lowest state in Nigeria in underemployment, unemployment and inflation rate.
According to a report released by the Financial Derivatives Company tagged ‘How the States Performed in 2017’, Osun has 19.0 per cent underemployment and unemployment, and 16.37 per cent inflation rate to come second to Taraba which has 13.4 and 16.18 per cent respectively.
In the measured “Misery Index” of the report obtained recently, Osun came second best with 35.36 per cent against 36.94 and 48.33 per cent of Ogun and Lagos state respectively.
Osun was also reported as the 5th state with lowest accruable revenue from Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).
Despite the position of the state in the FAAC, Osun is not part of the states with highest salary arrears, as shown in the ‘Delinquent States’ section of ‘How States Performed’ in the report.
Summarily, Osun was ranked the second less miserable and poverty-ridden state in 2017.
It would be recalled that the Managing Director of the FDC, Bismark Rewane had few months ago presented the report to the public.
Rewane said in one of the top three economic analysts in Nigeria, Osun had the lowest net FAAC allocation but was not delinquent in the payment of salary arrears.
Commenting on the report, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Adelani Baderinwa attributed the positive ranking of the state to Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s ingenuity in addressing the financial crisis of the state.
Baderinwa said the report was a sincere, professional and realistic assessment of economic activities and development in the state in terms of income and expenditure and how it positively affects the people in general.
According to Baderinwa, Osun could not have been rated less going by the prudence and judicious management of the little resources accruable to the state by Aregbesola, who has demonstrated to be a good and focused manager of resources.
Baderinwa maintained that the projects, programmes and policies being executed by Aregbesola have no doubt developed the economy of the state, improve the wellbeing of the people and guarantee security of life and properties.
He said: “The FDC report is a welcome development; it actually reflects the social and economic development in the state. This type of report is coming for the fourth time in six months from veritable and independent sources – the first from the United Nations (UN) Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index 2016, second from the National Bureau of Statistics, the Renaissance Capital, a leading emerging markets investment bank in Africa and now the FDC Misery Index 2017.
“We make bold to say that all the three reports, the last of which is that of the FDC, confirmed Aregbesola’s ingenuity, vision and ceaseless efforts in transforming the State of Osun to an Eldorado, socially, economically and in terms of infrastructure.
“Programmes like Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) which provides regular resources for 40,000 youths, Osun Free School Feeding progamme named ‘O MEAL’ which employs over 3334 women who prepare meals for the school children, Osun Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Program (ORAEP), designed to empower the farmers have contributed immensely to the development of the state.”
Baderinwa said Osun economy will in no time receive boost when the $30.5million contract won by the Osun RLG/Adulawo Technology Company for the supply of Terrestrial Broadcast Set Top Boxes flows into the market.
