Bimbo Ashiru, Ogun State commissioner for commerce and industry, has disclosed that the state ministry of commerce and industry recorded an average of N43.62 million monthly and generated over N415 million as total internally-generated revenue remitted to the state government coffers in the year 2013.
“Prior to the inception of this administration, the ministry was not all that relevant in terms of the internally-generated revenue of the state. Today, the story has changed. The ministry’s annual revenue collection when this administration took over in 2011 was N30.05 million. However, the average monthly collection of the ministry in 2013 was N43.62 million,” according to Ashiru.
Speaking at the ongoing 2014 Ogun State Inter-Ministerial Press Briefing in Abeokuta, Ashiru also said the state government had liquidated N85 million Bank of Agriculture loan out of N200.5 million recovered from the outstanding of N380 million micro credit facilities granted by former administration under State Agricultural and Multipurpose Credit Agency (OSAMCA).
Giving the account of government financial intervention and wealth creation during the year under review, the commissioner revealed that 25,000 direct jobs and 70,000 indirect jobs were created in the state through the provision of N1 billion MSMEs Industrial Development Fund granted to 828 entrepreneurs grouped under 86 co-operative societies.
Similarly, Ayo Olubori, the commissioner for environment, disclosed that about N20 million was raked in as penalty on industrial pollution from defaulting companies that discharged and emitted injurious substance into the environment, sealing up eight manufacturing companies, including Tulip Cocoa, Sun and Sand Steels, Everest Steels, Monarch steels, among others.
Olubori, who said the affected companies were temporarily sealed to serve as deterrent to other manufacturing plants that emit injurious substances into the environment, adding: “As part of efforts towards minimising industrial pollution, the agency has implemented the Polluter-Pays-Principle as part of its enforcement tools.
“This makes the industries take cognisance of the environmental impact of their operations more seriously than ever before. This of course has reflected in the revenue generated by way of penalty, which jumped from N70,000 in the year 2013, to about N20 million in the first quarter of 2014.”
RAZAQ AYINLA
