NIGER: Bello inaugurates 28-man joint committee to boost IGR

GOVERNOR Abubakar Sani Bello has inaugurated 28-members State and Local Governments joint revenue committee to improve revenue generation of the state.

Speaking during the inauguration, which took place at the Government House in Minna, Bello explained the reason for setting up the committee.

He stressed that the committee would be saddled with the responsibility of harmonising revenue collection system for the state and local governments.

The governor noted that the effort  was to boost the internally generated revenue of the state and local governments.

He stressed that the development, if well harnessed, would stop the state’s total reliance on Federal allocation.

The governor said, “This total reliance on Federal allocation has affected the state as we are finding it difficult to pay salaries both at state and local governments levels.

“This committee will better serve the local government areas than the state because we have more population in the local government areas as all revenues will be in harmonised form,”

The Governor noted that the harmonised revenue collection system was in the interest of the people particularly at the local government level.

According to the governor the terms of reference for the committee include: to harmonize task administration; deal with matters of common concern to the state and local governments; to enlightened members of the public on revenue matters.

Others are: to consider relevant resolutions to the Joint Task Board for implementation in the state and to advise the board on revenue matters.

In his remarks, Chairman of the committee, who doubles as the Acting Chairman, Niger State Board of Internal Revenue, Ahmad Garba Gunna, said that the committee will jointly work with all the 25 local governments in the State to ensure that they achieve positive outcome.

Recall that Niger State, in June 2020,  decided to male temporary 30% reduction in salaries of workers across the board, including political officers, in the face of the shrinking fortunes of the government aggravated by the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.

Governor Sani Bello recently declared that the state spends almost 90 per cent of its allocation on recurrent expenditure.

He said this at the Government House in Minna, while updating the public on the efforts to secure the release of the abducted Kagara students and staff.

The students have since been released.