IGR Ambition Must Not Replace Common Sense

Across Nigeria, states are rightly pursuing ambitious Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) targets. With federal allocations fluctuating and development needs expanding, subnational governments are under pressure to widen their revenue base. But Ambition, however, is not a strategy.

Revenue enforcement is most effective when it is anchored in procedural fairness, predictable engagement, and institutional discipline. When those elements are absent, even well-intentioned revenue drives can generate unintended consequences: business uncertainty, investor hesitation, and avoidable economic friction which are felt not in offices, but in homes, in classrooms, and in the lives of everyday Nigerians working to put food on the table.

Tax disputes are not unusual. In fact, they are a routine feature of any functioning economy. What distinguishes mature revenue systems from unstable ones is not the absence of disagreement, it is how disagreement is managed.

Structured reconciliation processes, transparent assessments, engagement before enforcement, and proportional action are hallmarks of regulatory maturity and a forward thinking government. Public condemnation before due process is exhausted sends a different signal, one that markets interpret quickly.

Nigeria’s private sector, particularly large enterprises with distributed agent networks, supports thousands of livelihoods. Behind every enforcement headline are small business operators, agents, vendors, families whose income depends on operational stability, children forced to sit out of their classrooms because fees are unpaid and untold hardship on the common man. Therefore it is imperative that revenue collection must balance fiscal urgency with economic stewardship and common sense.

There is also a competitive dimension. In an era where states increasingly compete for investment, the tone and method of regulatory engagement matter as much as policy itself. Some states like Abia, have demonstrated that revenue growth can coexist with investor confidence through reform-driven governance, institutional clarity, innovation and disciplined execution. The results are visible in improved infrastructure pipelines, business optimism, citizen ambassadorship and rising inter-state comparisons.

Revenue targets unsupported by structural reform, however, risk becoming aspirational figures rather than sustainable outcomes. The lesson is simple: enforcement without engagement may generate headlines, but engagement with procedural integrity generates compliance, strengths public-private sector relationships that ultimately drive the economy and prosperity.

As states refine their IGR strategies heading into 2026 and beyond, the most successful jurisdictions will not be those that pursue revenue most aggressively with half baked plans and zero strategic insight— but those that pursue it most intelligently.

In Nigeria’s evolving economic landscape, procedural fairness is not a concession to business. It is a foundation for growth. And ambition must not overcome common sense, as Abia has demonstrated, and its neighbours across the pond, like Enugu State, may want to emulate.