Kano State government has employed the services of nine tax consultants to boost its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to N10 billion monthly, under a strategic plan to reduce dependance on Federal Government’s monthly allocation to meet financial obligations.

Signing the agreement with the tax consultants at the weekend, Kano State Commissioner for Finance, Prof. Kabiru Isa Dandago hinted that the firms would assist government with technical input and deploy their expertise in partnership with various state revenue generating agencies, with the view to recover existing payable debts and discover untapped sectors.

Dandago explained that government resolution to engage the services of the consultants was borne out of conviction that existing abundant resources yet untapped could substantially enhance the state’s revenue base.

While lamenting on existing wide gap between Lagos and Kano IGRs, despite his state’s comparative advantage in population and landscape, Dandago insisted that Kano possesses the resources and stands to generate more than Lagos given all necessary enablements.

We are ever ready to boost our revenue drive in Kano because we believe we have all it takes to do so and even more. Although for now, we are trying to catch up with Lagos State, but we can do more. The government under able leadership of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Gamduje has resolved to make paradigm shift in revenue generation.
“We want to migrate from being a parasite waiting for Federal Government’s monthly revenue before we fulfill our financial obligations and carry out our capital projects. The government has found it unacceptable a situation whereby Lagos is generating about N20 billion monthly revenue and we in Kano find it difficult to generate N1 billion,”Dandago noted.

Dandagosaid that the firms were engaged between five and 10 years on various back duties and investigations, ranging from tax administration, debt recovery, tax on rent, interest income earnings, revenue on land and others.

Although the commissioner did not specify an agreed sharing formula between government and the consultants, Dandago pointed out that sharing percentage would be evaluated and determined based on income generating strength and technicality of the firms and could be varied.

Some of the consulting firms are Marock Consultant Limited, M.Yahaya& Associates, Danjaura Global Investment and Alkas Solution Nigeria Interbank Settlement System.

Others are Salihi. B &Co, SMD consulting, Veritex International Limited,Rumed Nigeria Limited and Ray Integrated Limited.
Managing Director Marock Consulting Limited, Francis Ubani reaffirmed the potentials and resources capable of generating more income to government coffers but noted that the intended target can only be ascertained through political will.
Reassuring his firm’s expertise to deliver, Ubani said Marock is known for its success story in Lagos and can only excel in Kano.