Kano wins IGR leadership award

The award was presented to the Executive Chairman of Kano State Internal Revenue Service, Abdurrazak Datti Salihi by the Chairman of the Alford Conferences Limited, Frederick Apeji, in Kano at the weekend.

Apeji said Kano was among the top 12 most independent states in revenue generation in 2019/2020.

“We are here to honour Salihi, the Executive Chairman of Kano State Internal Revenue Service (KIRS), because the agency of which he is the head is one of the top 12 most independent states in revenues in Nigeria in 2019.

“Among the FCT and 36 states of Nigeria, Kano was the 11th most independent in total revenue last year, with 32.98 percent of all its revenues generated internally,” he said.

Apeji disclosed that the IRS executive bosses of Lagos, Ogun, Abuja FCT, Rivers, Osun, Kwara, Kaduna, Cross River, Enugu, Ondo, and Anambra also won the award.

It was gathered that last year, 34 states in Nigeria depended on the Federation Account for more than 50 percent of their entire revenues.

Last month, the Chairman of the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Engr. Elias Mbam, warned that the states’ dependence on the Federal Government has made the Federation Account over stressed, urging state governments to develop strategies of boosting their internal revenues, as less money will be coming to the states henceforth.

Riding on Mbam’s warning, Apeji said, the need for each state to look inwards and come up with strategies to grow its IGR has become very critical.

“As part of our response to this critical national need, we have created Nigerian States IGR Summit, an annual conference designed to encourage and foster a healthy competition among the FCT and the 36 states of Nigeria in order to substantially increase their internally generated revenue (IGR),” he said.

The KIRS chairman said the award will spur him to do more for Kano IGR to increase. He said he has put in place an automated revenue collection system in the state, which he would improve upon to double financial injections.

He disclosed a lot of sensitisation will be carried out on levies and tax collection to make Kano traders collaborate with the board in order to make the state great in commercial and industrial activities.

“We shall be showing to Kano people, on a regular basis, how we utilise our IGR. This will encourage them to pay their taxes as to when due,” Salihi said.