Lagos night life. Credit: Arise TV
Lagos State has been named Nigeria’s best-performing state in the 2025 Phillips Consulting State Performance Index, emerging as the only state in the country to attain a five-star rating in the annual assessment of governance and development outcomes.
The ranking, released by Phillips Consulting, evaluated the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory across key sectors, including fiscal management, economic development, infrastructure, healthcare, education, governance, environmental sustainability and digital access.
According to the report, Lagos was the sole state to secure what was described as an “exceptional” rating, placing it first overall among all states of the federation. The assessment combined objective development indicators with citizens’ perception surveys to provide a comprehensive measure of state performance.
Trailing Lagos in the ranking were Ogun, Kaduna, Adamawa and Niger states, which all secured four-star ratings under the index’s performance framework. While the states were recognised for strong performances across several indicators, the report said none matched Lagos in overall governance effectiveness, economic resilience and service delivery.
