NBS: OSUN IS 3RD LEAST POOR STATE IN NIGERIA

Consistently Osun State has been placed between 1st and 3rd positions among the wealthiest states in Nigeria from 2016-2020. Critics have accused Rauf Aregbesola of putting Osun State in debts, how comes that National Bureau of Statistics now placed Osun in 3rd least poorest state position? National Bureau of Statistics since 2016 has proved Aregbesola’s crtics wrong in Osun State. Osun had the lowest net Federal Account Allocation but was not delinquent in the payment of salary arrears since 2018.  National Bureau of Statistics has released the NIGERIA POVERTY INDEX 2019 by states. Following the giant strides of former Governor Rauf Aregbesola, the incumbent Gov Oyetola is sustaining the legacy. Osun did well in 2016, took 2nd in 2017, took 1st in 2018 and 3rd in 2019.

The Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Osun ranked as 3rd least poor state in the country. The bureau, in its latest Poverty Index Report, ranked Osun 3rd,Delta second after Lagos among the states with low poverty rate, and said that 40.1 per cent of Nigeria’s total population was poor. According to it, an average of four out of 10 individuals in Nigeria have real per capita expenditures below N137, 430 per year, meaning that monthly income of an individual in this category is less than N11,500 while income per day is N383.03.

The report said “Lagos State has 4.50 per cent poverty head count rate and closely trailed by Delta with 6.02 per cent. Osun has 8.52 percent. The report translates to over 82.9 million Nigerians considered as poor by national standard.” The report was a reflection of the “Prosperity for all people in Osun State’’ agenda being vigorously pursued by the former Gov. Rauf Aregbesola administration.

I thanked the NBS for conducting living standards survey 10 years after the last one and for using consumption expenditures approach in measuring poverty in Nigeria rather than income approach. Conceptually, consumption expenditures better reflect the achievements of a particular level of welfare by a household, while income represents the opportunity of reaching a certain level of well-being.

“The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Monday, May 4, 2020, released the long-awaited Nigeria Poverty and Inequality Survey Report 2019. “The report places Osun State as the third least poor (poverty reduction milestone) State in Nigeria, after Lagos and Delta. “This particular survey, conducted with support from the World Bank, recorded a clear departure from the previous exercises, especially in the area of methodology where the consumption expenditures approach was adopted.

“With the new national poverty line at N137, 430 or $361 per person per annum, which translates to $0.98 per day and captures about 40 per cent of the total population, it shows considerable improvement over the years.

“In the last couple of years Osun has remained one of the lowest earners in the country in terms of allocation from the federation account. There was report that showed Osun is the second best in 2017 in the measured “Misery Index” with a 16.37 per cent inflation rate, which also sums up with the rate of under-employment and unemployment, when Nigeria’s misery index has risen to an all-time high of 47.7 per cent. Osun got least FAC, not the worst loan, yet was 2nd best in 2017. The field report so shocked the reputed Channels TV analyst BISMARCK REWANE when publishing Annual FINANCIAL DERIVATIVES REPORT, he said that other states have things to learn from Rauf Aregbesola in economic management.

“The NBS rating is a pointer to the fact that Osun’s resources have been put to judicious use by the Former Governor Rauf Aregbesola-led government thereby reducing poverty to a level that we can boldly say that we are working. Our desire as a state is to come top in the country and also further improve the standard of living of Osun people in line with best global standards,” he stated. The report indicated that Sokoto, Taraba, Jigawa, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Yobe and Adamawa lead the poorest states in the country.

The survey is used to measure prevalence of poverty and to estimate a wide range of socio-economic indicators, including benchmarking of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Osun has been ranked the second less miserable and poverty-ridden state in 2017. The state was placed the second wealthiest among the 36 states of the federation, according to a report released on Monday. The Financial Derivatives Company, which released the report, in its presentation, titled: “How the States Performed in 2017,” by its Managing Director Bismark Rewane, said in one of the top three economic analysts in Nigeria, Osun had the lowest net Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocation but was not delinquent in the payment of salary arrears.

The report showed that Osun is the second best in the measured “Misery Index” with a 16.37 per cent inflation rate, which also sums up with the rate of under-employment and unemployment. The report noted that despite the financial quagmire states experienced in the last financial year, the ingenuity of the Modulated Salary Structure by the state government yielded positive results. The report also outlines the core indices of a structurally balanced, growing and diverse economy, which is coming for the second time in six months from veritable and independent sources – the first from the United Nations (UN) Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index 2016 and now the FDC Misery Index 2017.

Financial experts say the conclusion is that the state government, under former Governor Rauf Aregbesola who made deliberate investments in infrastructure, education, social services, human capacity development and sincere political leadership, created an economy with under-employment, unemployment and inflation well below national averages and diverse.

The Misery Index figures also showed that aside Taraba, Ogun and Lagos states, are key players in Nigeria’s Industrial Base, but still have huge poverty index with a definite number of its citizens living below the normal living standards as set by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has ranked Osun as the state with the lowest poverty incidence in the country. The Human Development Index (HDI) report which is computed annually, assesses the different indicators that contribute to the poverty level of states in the federation. The computation of HDI for the UNDP Nigeria Human Development Report (2016) which was released by NBS had rated Osun the second lowest state on the poverty index, one of the five states with lowest unemployment rate by NBS, and the second richest state in Nigeria by the United Nations’ Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index in 2017.

Low unemployment rate

Furthermore, the Incidence of Poverty which is the percentage of Nigerians who are poor is 53.7 percent and the disaggregation by states shows that it is more prevalent (89.9 percent) in Sokoto state, followed by Jigawa state with 86.1 percent, Rivers and Ebonyi state share 58.9 percent each, while the lowest state is Osun state with 17.5 percent.

Also, the intensity of poverty in Nigeria is 41.9 percent which means that poor Nigerians are deprived in 41.9 percent of the dimensions. It is highest in Sokoto State (50.4 percent) while Osun state has the lowest (35.5) percent. It also puts Osun’s unemployment rate at 6.7 percent in the federation.

The incidence of poverty for the State of Osun was 10.9%  in 2017 as against  37.5% in 2010. Meaning that Osun has experienced a significant drop in the incidence of poverty between 2010 and now. The NBS also states that the number of employed persons in Osun increased from 1,524,312  in 2010 to 2,365,622  in Q3, 2017 representing 55% increase over a period of seven (7 years). Similarly, the latest unemployment rate published by National Bureau of Statistics  for third quarter 2017 also shows that Osun still maintains the lowest unemployment rate (5.3%) with the new 6.7% in 2018.

Osun has been ranked the second less miserable and poverty-ridden state in 2017 in line with the objectives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank recommendations. Osun State has shared the same goal of raising living standards of its people. Its approaches to poverty reduction are complementary, with the IMF focusing on macroeconomic issues and the World Bank concentrating on long-term economic development and poverty reduction. The implication of this ranking on the Misery Index is clearly desirable. The implication is good living standard of Osun citizens.