We have increased Kwara’s IGR from N500m to N1.5bn – Ahmed

Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State says his administration was able to raise the state monthly internally generated ‎revenue (IGR) from N500 million to N1.5 billion in recent time, representing 200 percent increase. 

Governor Ahmed said the state government raised the IGR by 200 percent owing to the introduction of new revenue collection strategy adopted by the re-branded ‎Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS) aimed at raising the fortune of the state.

‎Speaking in a press statement made available to BusinessDay in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital yesterday, by Abdulwahab Oba, Governor Ahmed noted that states must look beyond earnings from the federation account in order to survive present funding challenges currently faced by all tiers of government in Nigeria.

According to the governor, his administration has since changed the process of revenue generation without introducing new taxes to meet the current challenges of infrastructural development.

“I am happy that the consciousness has come to us as a country, as a state and most importantly as a government that we cannot continue to depend on federation allocations. Hence, we have been able to drive our internally generated revenue by changing the process and the personnel,” he said.

He said the state would have been in a dire financial challenge but for the increased IGR, as whatever came from the centre “goes into paying salaries and wages as the government has resolved not to lay off workers at the state and local government in order not to compound the prevailing difficulties.”

The governor said as part of his administration’s effort to drive agriculture as money earner for the state, 10,000 hectares had been earmarked for next farming season to deepen the administration’s off-taker demand driven initiative in agriculture.