Statistics released by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicates that Yobe State government has emerged the fastest growing Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) State in Nigeria in the year 2019.
According to NBS and authenticated by Alford Conferences Limited, Publishers of Revenue Magazine, N8.44b was generated in the State in 2019 as against the N4.38 billion generated in 2018.
The Chairman and Publisher of Alford Conference Limited, Mr. Federick Apeji while presenting an award of excellence to the Executive Chairman of Yobe State Internally Generated Revenue, Alhaji Ali Usman Ahmad at a brief ceremony in his office in Damaturu noted that the performance of Yobe State in the revenue generation is impressive despite the security challenges that the state is facing.
He noted that in the NBS annual report titled, “Internally Generated Revenue at State Level (Quarter 4 2019 & Full Year 2019)”, dated May 2020, Yobe State grew its IGR by 92.70% during the year under review, while Zamfara and Osun states grew theirs by 87.85% and 72.64% respectively.
In his remarks after receiving the award, the Permanent Secretary/ Executive Chairman of Yobe State Board of Internal Revenue; Alhaji Ali Usman Ahmed made it known that the achievement in the revenue was not “a rocket science but by putting heads together and bringing in new policies to prevent the ugly performance in 2018 to re-occur”.
He added that “the board widen its tax net and explore sectors such as education, communication, power, banking and other sectors that are salient to boosting the state revenue.
“We went into these sectors to claim what belonged to us that we have not been getting and we have recovered a lot.”
He further stated, “Going forward, we will change all our sources of revenue collection to Electronic Revenue Collection and Accountability System (ECAS) to ensure effective collection and full remittance of revenue to the government coffers.”
