Police Minister Charges Stakeholders to Shore Up IGR

Police Minister Charges Stakeholders to Shore Up IGR

Kingsley Nwezeh

Minister of Police Affairs, Dr. Mohammad Dingiyadi, yesterday charged stakeholders to evolve strategies to shore up Internally Generated Revenue(IGR) by leveraging on changing technologies.

He made this known during a two-day stakeholders’ zonal conference on IGR tagged: “Strategies At Enhancing Internally Generated Revenue” in Abuja.

The minister, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Temitope Fashedemi, said fiscal resources were urgently needed to stimulate the economy and provide the necessary dividend of good governance, noting that leveraging on the fast pace of changing technology in the recognition recording accounts and reporting of revenue to block leakages, losses, and wastages.

“There is no gainsaying the fact that Nigeria’s main source of forex and funding the national budget remains crude oil export whose price is determined by externalists outside our control”.

Dingyadi stated that the worldwide lockdown due to the ravaging pandemic had drastically reduced the global demand for oil which affected the economy.

According to him,” there has been a drastic fall in capital importation both foreign portfolio investment due to uncertainty created by the pandemic. The usual remittances by Nigerians in Diaspora were also reduced and all these reduced the availability of FOREX in the country.

According to him, “there has been a drastic fall in capital importation both foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio investment due to the uncertainty created by the pandemic. The usual remittances by Nigerians in diaspora were also reduced and all these reduced the availability of Forex in the country”.

In her presentation titled,“The roles of stakeholders’ at enhancing internally generated revenue profile of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) “Nigeria Banks in Focus”, the Director, Revenue Accounting Department, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mrs. Okoroafor Francis, represented by the Assistant Director, Munir Muhammad, enumerated revenue source for the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) such as registration and renewal of firearm licenses, auction sales, CID clearance certificate/fingerprint, bank guards/police services, police extract fees and rent of police quarters/canteens. She listed others to include tender fees, international vehicle certificate and driving permit fees, police information fees and tinted glasses permit among others.

He added that the collection sources for these revenue streams should be decentralised through the bank branches nationwide, use of USSD codes for payments, and automation of the payment process.

In his presentation titled, “Revenue Generation: A Panacea for Economic Suitability”, Professor Abdullahi Ozohu-Suleman, stated that comprehensive and up to date data or information on potential and existing taxpayers is vital and absence database on businesses in the informal sector of the economy and challenges of lack of comprehensive and up-to-date database as well as tax evasion are militating against effective revenue generation in Nigeria.

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