On October 14, 2022, Ogun state governor, Dapo Abiodun, said about 36 investment portfolios worth over $1 billion came into the state.
He mentioned this at the inauguration of the Ogun State Investment and Facilitation Agency (OGUNINVEST).
“We have continued to reap bountiful harvests from our commitment as existing investments are thriving, and new investments are being attracted. As of today, we’ve been able to attract 36 new investments into Ogun State worth over a billion United States dollars and generated an estimated 40,000 jobs since the inception of OGUNINVEST,” he said.
This claim came up again leading up to the Ogun State governorship election. The National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) referenced it without any evidence to back it up. This begs the obvious question:
Is Abiodun’s claim valid?
[Dapo Abiodun / PM News]
Verifying the claim
Our partners, Fact CheckElections, looked into this claim. Here’s what they found:
“The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released ‘Nigeria’s Capital Importation’ data for the four quarters of 2022. Ogun State and twenty-six others did not receive foreign investment in 2022.
“Foreign investments in the country fell by 20.47 per cent ($1.37bn) from $6.7bn in 2021 to $5.33bn in 2022. Nigeria’s capital importation plunged to $1.06bn in Q4 2022 — down by 8.53%.
“According to the NBS, only five out of the 36 states and the federal capital territory (FCT) attracted capital investments in Q4 2022.
“For 2022, the report cumulatively showed that only Lagos and Abuja had investments of $billion at 3.61 and 1.63, respectively. Others were in the millions. Ogun had no investment in 2022, according to the NBS.”
In 2022, the state claimed to have signed an MOU worth $400 million. However, Statisense showed that Ogun attracted only a $30.5m investment in four years (2019-2022).” This is far from $1bn as claimed.
A civic organisation, Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI), has ranked Ogun State 28th with a score of 18 per cent on the level of transparency and accountability operational in managing public funds and implementing public policies in the State.
Verdict
Abiodun’s claim that Ogun state attracted $1bn in investments during his first term in office is burnt dodo. There’s no evidence to support this claim.
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