<\/p>\n
Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has questioned whether Nigeria\u2019s economic growth is translating into tangible improvements in the lives of citizens.<\/p>\n
Makinde raised the concern in the August edition of his newsletter, The Business of Governance<\/em>, while examining recent economic performance figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics\u00a0 and the Oyo State Government.<\/p>\n The governor acknowledged that Nigeria\u2019s Gross Domestic Product\u00a0 is growing, government revenues are increasing and budgets are being implemented. However, he said the more important question is whether these economic gains are improving the welfare of ordinary Nigerians.<\/p>\n \u201cGDP is growing. Revenues are rising. Budgets are being implemented. These numbers matter. But there is a more important question: are the national numbers translating into better outcomes for Nigerians?\u201d Makinde asked.<\/p>\n He said economic growth should not be measured solely by statistics, arguing that Nigerians experience the economy through the prices of food, transportation, electricity and housing.<\/p>\n According to him, citizens also assess economic progress by whether their businesses are growing, whether decent employment opportunities are available and whether families have greater confidence in their economic future.<\/p>\n Makinde said his administration had adopted the principle that economic growth must ultimately translate into improved living standards, more opportunities and better public services.<\/p>\n He disclosed that Oyo State generated N406.9 billion in total revenue during the first six months of 2026, representing 91.2 per cent of its target for the period.<\/p>\n The state also recorded expenditure of N345.7 billion, representing 77.5 per cent of its half-year expenditure target.<\/p>\n However, the governor stressed that the figures were not the ultimate measure of the state\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat matters is what we are able to do with the resources available to us,\u201d he said, listing infrastructure development, education, healthcare, agricultural transportation and the reduction of living costs among key areas of focus.<\/p>\n Makinde also disclosed that Oyo State would soon take delivery of 50 electric buses to operate across local government areas and on intra-city and inter-city routes.<\/p>\n He said the initiative was aimed at reducing transportation costs for residents rather than merely expanding the government\u2019s vehicle fleet.<\/p>\n The governor maintained that strong economic indicators should provide governments with greater capacity to improve the lives of citizens.<\/p>\n He therefore urged Nigerians and policymakers to look beyond GDP figures and assess whether economic growth is producing meaningful improvements in people’s daily lives.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, that remains the more important measure of economic progress,\u201d Makinde said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has questioned whether Nigeria\u2019s economic growth is translating into tangible improvements in the lives of citizens. Makinde raised the concern in the August edition of his newsletter, The Business of Governance, while examining recent economic performance figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics\u00a0 and the Oyo State Government. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}