The Executive Chairman of Kwara Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS), Prof. Muritala Awodun has charged the incoming government to ensure that the state maintain within the ambit of top 10 Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) derivation states in the country.
He gave the charge during an interview with Pilot Business, in Ilorin, the state capital on Wednesday.
Prof. Awodun said ” The report on Economic Confidential on Annual States Viability Index (ASVI) is a realisation of the fact that the work done here in the last four years is meaningful.
” Putting Kwara on the map in terms of progress in IGR collection, which translates to progress in other areas, if there is consistency in the growth we can be rest assured that sooner it will translate into development.
” You will see that it is not just the index of the economic Confidential alone that has placed Kwara in the top 10, but several other indices had done that. What the report did is to apply the IGR collected as a percentage of federal allocation because these are two major sources of revenue collection in Nigeria.
“Going by their analysis no more than 17 states were able to have IGR that is 10 percent and above in the federal allocation. And 10 states have IGR beyond 20 percent and above from the federal allocation and Kwara is among them, which is a good development for us and we have been in that bracket from 2016 just that it is coming to the lime light now,” he explained.
The KWIRS Chairman explained further ” If you look at 2016 when we had N17.4 billion our percentage from Federal Allocation IGR was about 37 percent. In 2017 when we collected about N19.6 billion our percentage was close to 40 percent. In 2018 when we generated N23.1 billion our percentage dropped to 28 percent because there were some improvement in federal allocation. But the improvement in federal allocation brought down the percentage concentration of IGR, Kwara has been on that bracket consistently in the last three years.
” it is only coming to the lime light now because several media reports have published significant reports on the IGR. But this is coming now because it is a transition period, perhaps to draw the attention of most of the new governors to the fact that they have a lot of works to do in the area of improving their IGR because if they don’t, the sustainability of activities of their states is going to be affected.”
Recall that the Economic Confidential Magazine listed Kwara among 10 most economically viable states in Annual States Viability Index ( ASVI), saying that the state with a low receipt from the Federation Account has maintained its impressive IGR by generating N23bn compared to FAA of N81bn representing 28%.
The magazine said Lagos State remained steadfast in its number one position in IGR with a total revenue generation of N382bn compared to FAA of N260bn which translate to 146% in the twelve months of 2018.
It is followed by Ogun State which generated IGR of N84..55bn compared to FAA of N93bn representing 90%; Rivers with N112bn compared to FAA of N237bn representing 47% and Kwara State with a low receipt from the Federation Account has maintained its impressive IGR by generating N23bn compared to FAA of N81bn representing 28%.
Others with impressive IGR include Edo with IGR of N28bn compared to FAA of N112bn representing 25%; Kano generated N44bn compared to FAA of N183bn representing 24%; Enugu with IGR of N22bn compared to FAA of N92bn representing 23%; Ondo with IGR of N24bn compared to FAA of N108bn representing 22.77%; Kaduna with IGR of N29bn compared to FAA of N131bn representing 22..44% while Delta State earned N58bn IGR against FAA of N285bn representing 20%.
While the report provides shocking discoveries, the states with less than 10% IGR have remained 17 as in the previous year 2017. The report further showed that only three states in the entire Northern region have IGR above 20% in comparison to their respective allocations from the Federation Account. They are Kwara, Kano and Kaduna States.
