The Federal Government has flagged off the computation of the States’ Gross Domestic Product (SGDP) in the South West region.
Shamsudeen Usman, the Minister of National Planning, inaugurated the programme at the Lagos State Government House on Friday.
Usman said the computation, a part of federal government?s strategy at stimulating economic development in the region, was aimed at providing a measure of the size of economic activities of each state.
The programme is an initiative of the National Planning Commission and the Federal Bureau of Statistics, with support from the Governors? Forum.
Usman said the computation of SGDP and its inclusion in the national data framework would make the data comprehensive and promote the predictability of the national economy.
“The computation and the inclusion of States’ Gross Domestic Product (SGDP) in the national framework data will also promote accountability and create awareness of the outcomes of efforts at the sub-national levels,? he said
“With the disaggregated data and information on economic activities available, it will give room for improved management of both the sub-national and national economies, as well as generate healthy competition among states.”
Usman said the published data of states’ GDP would also serve as a basis for effectively benchmarking the economies of such states, and facilitating their rating-by-rating agencies.
The minister said that a road map had been put in place for the implementation of the SGDP project, which would be done in two phases and would be completed in June 2013.
He said the government had already completed the listing and updating of establishments in all the 774 local Government Areas, preparatory to the data collection exercise to be held in a pilot state.
“The key message from the exercise is that over 1,000 new firms were identified and listed. The next set of activities in the first phase includes development of instruments and the training of statistical officers and data enumerators,” he said.
“The estimated financial cost of the GDP computation project is N1.044 billion, which is to be borne by the Federal and state governments, and development partners.
?”In this wise, 36 states and FCT are contributing the sum of N522 million or N14.1million each, while the Federal Government contributes N313.3million, and development partners give N208.9 million.”
Usman said 14 states had already fulfilled their financial obligations to the project, and appealed to the remaining states to fulfil their obligations.
The minister commended the Lagos State Government for propelling the state to become an economic giant.
He said the high volume of economic activities in the state had impacted positively on the national GDP.
In his address, Governor Babatunde Fashola commended the Federal Government for initiating the project.
He said it would help provide reliable economic data for the country.
While declaring Lagos State’s support for the project, the governor urged other states to embrace it, adding that no country could attain development without possessing reliable economic data.
