Stories by Matthew Denis
The curtain will be drawn on the four-year tenure of the pioneer Executive Chairman of the Kwara Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS), Prof. Muritala Awodun, in September, 2019.
The chairman is expected to vacate office on the 23rd of the month as stipulated by the law establishing the revenue agency.
Speaking during a media parley held at Whitefield Hotel Ilorin, Prof. Awodun confirmed that the four-year tenure of his management team will lapse in September.
The agency boss, however, said he is not interested in renewing the contract for another four years, adding that his professional call is the academia.
“I will turn down the offer for a reappointment for another four years tenure. I came from the academic as an associate Professor and I am now a Professor of Business Administration. I am willing to take an appointment as a lecturer in a university after my service here, ” he stressed.
On the performance of his management, the chairman said ” Before we came on board the position of Kwara in Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) was 34, Kwara was the 30th position out of 36 states in terms of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) per capita in 2015, but we brought the state to 7th position in 2018 in IGR per capita.
“There were about 45 abandoned projects across the state, but with the establishment of Infrastructural Funds Kwara (IF-K) in 2016, KWIRS has contributed N20 billion so far and these projects have been completed.
“Kwara State became the first state in Nigeria to bag the International Standardization for Organisations (ISO) for quality operations and services in accordance with world standard.
” In the African Index report for all the states surveyed in Nigeria, Kwara came second after Lagos State. Kwara was also rated 10th in poverty index; 3rd in electricity index; internet index sixth position; ease of doing business 10th position; IGR per capita seventh position, IGR 10th position; infrastructure 11th position, health 10th position; housing 9th position, primary education 8th position and tertiary education 5th position. Putting all these index together Kwara emerged 2nd position after Lagos,” Awodun further said.
The KWIRS boss added that the agency created about 734 direct employment and engaged over 2000 people through contracts among others since establishment.
According to him, the state has moved to 9th position in terms of Internally Generated Revenue among the 36 states in the country.
The Chairman equally disclosed that the agency’s target for the 2019 financial year is pegged at N33 billion.
Recall that the Awodun-led KWIRS increased the state revenue generation from N7.4 billion in 2015 by the defunct revenue board to N23 billion in 2018.
