Following the persistent decline in revenue to the federation account which has impacted negatively on statutory allocation, state governments have resolved to begin an aggressive drive to shore up their Internally Generated Revenue from next year.
According to a report by Sunday Punch, the move is part of measures aimed at reducing the over-dependence of state governments on revenue from the federation account.
Since the beginning of this year, the revenue accretion into the account has not been too impressive as a result of production shutdown and volatility in oil prices.
The Chairman, Forum of Finance Commissioners of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, Mr. Mahmoud Yunusa, confirmed the move by states to shore up revenue, in an interview with PUNCH.
He said the state governments would be setting up machinery to assist in boosting the IGR.
He said, “There are many states that are doing very well in terms of revenue generation and most of the states in the North-East have started doing very well because there is improvement in commercial activities and taxes are being collected in these areas.
“A lot of states are really making progress but we are far away from what we should be and we will get there very soon. If there is one restructuring that is very difficult, it is to restructure the revenue base. Our intention is to really reduce significantly the over-dependence of states on revenue that comes from the centre.
“We want to set up machinery by giving ourselves some time to raise our revenue and a lot of states are on course; and in the next one year, we will see a significant improvement along that line. And we will give the Federal Government a break but with our eyes open on what is supposed to get to us.”
In the third quarter of this year, the total IGR for 19 states was put at N149.45bn. The NBS in the IGR report stated that Lagos State recorded the highest revenue with N73.74bn, while Ogun State followed with N16.9bn.
Akwa Ibom recorded N3.3bn in the IGR;
Bayelsa, N4.3bn;
Benue N2.3bn;
Cross River N2.83bn;
Delta N13bn;
Ekiti N1.3bn
Others are
Enugu, N4.7bn;
Imo, N1.6bn;
Jigawa, N1.6bn;
Kaduna, N6.3bn,
Ondo, N2.7bn,
Osun N2.4bn,
Oyo N5.6bn,
Plateau, N2.5bn;
Taraba, N1.5bn;
Yobe, N1.1bn; and
Zamfara, N1.2bn.
It reads in part, “A total of N149.45bn was generated by states in the third quarter of 2017. The states are Rivers, Sokoto, Nasarawa, Niger, Kwara, Kano,Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Gombe, Edo, Borno, Bauchi, Adamawa, Abia, Ebonyi and Anambra, which have not yet reported their IGR figures for the Q3 2017.”
