Niger Targets N1bn IGR in Landmark Initiative to Reclaim Border Revenues

James Emejo in Abuja
The Niger State Government said it planned to increase its internally generated revenue (IGR) to N1 billion monthly from the current sum of about N500 million.

Banking on a landmark Initiative with key technology consultants, the state is hoping to reclaim tax revenues purportedly paid by Niger State border residents to the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) Abuja instead of Niger State.

Speaking in Minna, during the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with tax consultants engaged for the task, the State Commissioner for Finance, Mallam Ibrahim Balarabe expressed regret that most of the people working in Abuja actually reside in Suleja, which is part of the state but remit their taxes to Abuja.

He said: “The revenues should’ve come to Niger State instead of going to Abuja. So what we have to do now is to ensure that the revenues going to Abuja come to Niger State. And I believe if we are able to block that leakage, we are going to have very serious increase in our collection.”

He said the state has no direct financial obligation to the five consultants engaged adding that they are only entitled to between 5 percent and 10 percent of revenue collections.
He said: “It is our hope that once this assignment is concluded our revenue base should exceed N1 billion monthly; as at today, our IGR is hovering between N400 million and N500 million.”

Balarabe added that the state government will provide all necessary support to the consultants to succeed as it plans total overhaul of its tax system to meet development aspirations of the state.
He said the exercise will provide accurate data base of tax payers and reduce incidences of tax evasion to the barest minimum.

However, the Managing Director/Chief Executive of FourCore Technology Solutions Limited, Mr. Mohammed Ciroma whose company is saddled with the task of reclaiming lost taxes due to the state said though the job would require lots of boots on the ground, it will provide employment opportunities to citizens in the state.
He told journalists: “Today is a momentous day. The MoU we signed was for reclaiming taxes; You’ll find that most people in Abuja live actually in Niger State but their taxes get paid in Abuja.

“So what we are going to do for the state is to reclaim, maybe going back five years and we are going forward to ensure that all taxes due to Niger State are paid in Niger and this is the MoU we signed.”
According to him, “To actualise it is a lot of handwork really. It’s a lot of boots on the ground. We’ll do what we call enumeration and that’ll give a lot of employment opportunities for people because we need to recruit a lot of young men with a lot of forms.

“So they’ll go round virtually everywhere in Suleja, get names, and addresses and so on which we’ll now process with the Federal Internal Revenue Service.
Employment opportunities to be generated will target people in Niger basically because we are here for Niger and so we’ll want them to take the full benefits of what we are doing.”

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