Kwara generates N1.5b monthly as IGR, says Ahmed

Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State said that his government now generates about N1.5 billion monthly as Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR).

The state, before the establishment of a new IGR body headed by Dr. Muritala Awodun, was generating N500 million monthly.

Ahmed, who said this at a function organised by members of ‘Third Estate’ in Ilorin, noted that state governments should henceforth look beyond earnings from the Federation Account to survive the present funding challenges.

The governor said his administration had since changed the process of revenue generation without introducing new taxes to meet the current challenges of infrastructural needs.

“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 federal allocations. Hence, we have been able to drive our IGR by changing the process and the personnel”, he said.

He noted that the state would have been in dire financial challenges but for the increased IGR, stressing: “Whatever comes from the centre goes into paying salaries and wages and the government has resolved not to lay off workers at state and local council levels not to compound the prevailing difficulties of the citizenry.”

Chairman, Third Estate, Dr. Yusuf Lawal, in his remark said the body had rendered community support services such as provision of boreholes, financial assistance to indigent students and scholarship to brilliant students who are natives of Ilorin Emirate for post-graduate studies.