Senator Sharafadeen Alli, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Oyo State, has promised to make the Oyo State economy one of the three largest among Nigeria’s states if elected in 2027. He pledged while unveiling his manifesto, titled “My Pact,” to stakeholders in Ibadan on Tuesday. The commitments are campaign promises, not independent forecasts.
Key takeaways
– Alli’s first target is to raise Oyo’s internally generated revenue (IGR) to ₦150 billion a year without taxing traders and households more heavily.
– He also promised ₦10 billion for an Oyo Youth Fund and local government autonomy from his first day in office.
– Official data shows Oyo’s 2025 IGR at about ₦103 billion, so the target implies growth of roughly 45%.
How Alli plans to grow the Oyo State economy
Alli said the plan is built on seven pillars under the acronym Oyo AHEAD. They are local government autonomy, infrastructure, health reform, education and employment, agriculture and export, the digital economy and security. He described the logic as a chain: reliable power attracts factories, factories create jobs, and jobs generate revenue that funds schools and clinics.
He said the state would fully constitute its electricity regulator, generate power locally and supply it to industrial and farm corridors. He also promised to revive the Oluyole Free Trade Zone, build industrial parks and set up a guarantee fund for small businesses. Digital hubs would be built in the state’s five geopolitical zones, and farm settlements would be revived with 10,000 farmers insured.
Oyo IGR target: the ₦150bn figure in context
Alli said Oyo raised less than ₦100 billion in IGR last year, while neighbouring Ogun raised nearly three times as much. He said the market woman “will pay no more than she pays today.”
National Bureau of Statistics data gives a slightly different picture. Oyo generated ₦103.25 billion in 2025, up from ₦65.29 billion in 2024, a rise of about 58%. Ogun generated ₦252.36 billion, roughly 2.4 times Oyo’s figure. On 2025 numbers, ₦150 billion would still trail Ogun and Delta (₦202.49 billion), but it would put Oyo ahead of Edo (₦132.21 billion).
What “top three” means for the Oyo State economy
The manifesto does not say how a top-three ranking would be measured. No single official league table of state economies exists, and IGR is only one yardstick. By that measure, Lagos led with ₦1.77 trillion in 2025, followed by Rivers with ₦428.42 billion and Enugu with ₦406.77 billion. Even allowing for a rise to ₦150 billion, Oyo would remain a long way behind that group, so reaching the top three would take sustained growth well beyond the first target.
Other promises and political reaction
Alli also promised 20-year warranties on new roads, six-monthly audits of faulty transformers, and free health insurance for infants, pregnant women and people aged 70 and above. He aims to raise health insurance enrolment from 271,000 to 500,000 in two years. The Oyo Youth Fund would begin with ₦10 billion.
The Oyo State economy is now a central campaign theme. The Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM) campaign council has criticised the manifesto as lacking originality and recycling existing policies. Alli’s campaign has not publicly responded to that criticism.
