An international independent organisation has rated Kwara second in revenue generation and 10th position out of the 36 states in the country making progress in terms of ease of doing business.
Muritala Awodun, a professor of International Business and Entrepreneurship and chairman of Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS), disclosed this while giving account of his stewardship at the media parley, held in Ilorin, the state capital.
He said this was contained in African Report Index 2018, which was produced by an independent organisation that comes up with ‘Africa States Progress Report’.
The KWIRS boss, who informed that the state was next to Lagos government in IGR generation, stated that “All the states in Nigeria were surveyed on certain indexes and the report as at 2018, placed Kwara State as second after Lagos State.”
The criteria used, according to him, included poverty index.
“ Kwara was placed 10th out of 36 states on access to electricity. Kwara was 3rd on Internet users index. Kwara was 6th on ease of doing business index. Kwara was placed 10th on IGR per capita. The state was placed 7th out of the 36 states in Nigeria,” he elucidated.
“On infrastructure index, Kwara was placed 11th, on access to health index. Kwara was placed 10th on housing index; Kwara was 9th on primary education access index and was 8th on tertiary education. Kwara was placed 5th out of 36 state in Nigeria. All these were put together and used to determine the position for each state.”
He said the state currently generates about N2 billion as its IGR, adding that based on the peculiarity of the state, it was handling the issue of tax with tact and persuasion.
Awodun recalled that before his administration came on board in September 2015, the processes of revenue collection were awash with leakages and lots of things were not right.
About 45 projects, according to him,,, were abandoned due to dwindling revenue and now, all have been completed and several new projects have commenced because of Infrastructural Fund, IF-K established in 2016.
“The Kwara IGR position, which was 27 among 39 states in 2015, has moved to 9th position by 2018.
“The story over the last three and a half years, particularly at the close of 2018, is that the IGR of the state increased to N23 billion, as opposed to N7.2 billion in 2015.”
He, however, stated that the state has the potential to rake in about N5 billion monthly from internally generated revenue (IGR).
“This is just evidence of the impact of the reformed revenue collection process in the state.
“I can confidently say that what we have been able to achieve in Kwara which was attested to, by our colleagues at the joint task board. It is a significant step in the right direction by the state,” he stated.
SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin
