The State of Osun

Having been established in 1991, the State of Osun is one of the younger states in Nigeria, and in recent years the state government has made ambitious efforts to expand and develop the local economy. Named after the River Osun, linked to the Yoruba goddess of fertility, the state was carved out from the former territory of Oyo State during a boundary re-drawing in the 1990s. Over the past two and a half decades, Osun has grappled with many of the same challenges as other states in the country – poorly maintained infrastructure, irregular federal funding and inadequate social services – but a spate of reforms launched are aiming to address those issues. Although Osun does face its fair share of challenges, including a dependency on the volatile agricultural sector and neglected infrastructure, the current administration has taken a number of steps to block monetary leakages, improve project preparation and delivery, and raise internally generated revenue.