Bayelsa IGR Grows to N12.14bn

The Bayelsa State Government said yesterday that it had succeeded in growing the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from a paltry N4.7 billion annually to about N12.14 billion at the end of 2017.

Special Adviser to Governor Seriake Dickson on Revenue, Treasury and Accounts, Timipre Seipulou, while giving the scorecard of the Ministry of Finance on behalf of the Commissioner, said the feat was made possible by the ingenuity of the current team.

He disclosed that six years ago, when the incumbent took over, the IGR was negligible, adding that as at the end of last year, the growth had risen to an average of one billion naira per month.

According to Seipulou, the state government had also managed to fish out several ghost workers in the civil service, thereby saving the state huge funds.

He added: “When this administration came on board in 2012, secondary school teachers’ wage bill was N866 million . But as at November 2017 it was reduced to N600 million.

“For primary schools, which had staff strength of 11,355, the wage bill was N757 million as at February 2012, but through our verification exercises we were able to reduce its 9000 staff with a wage bill of N569 million.”

Seipulou enumerated other achievements to include instituting the monthly transparency briefing, anti-salary fraud law, income and expenditure law, and successful restructuring of the bond obligation inherited by the present administration.

Also speaking, the State Commissioner for Education, Jonathan Obuebite, said that over N3 billion had been spent by Bayelsa State as counterpart funding in the Education sector in the last six years.

He stated that the declaration of a state of emergency and the huge investment in the educational sector since 2012 had continued to yield positive results in contrast to the deplorable condition of schools inherited by the present administration.

The Commissioner said the infrastructure were in a state of decay while the performance of the students at externally conducted examination (SSSCE and NECO) were abysmal.

He cited the construction of headmasters’ quarters, teachers’ quarters, classroom blocks in more than 500 Primary Schools, renovation of over 160 Secondary Schools across the state, introduction of boarding schools and free school feeding programme as some of the achievements.

Others listed include the accreditation of the courses at the state-owned Niger Delta University, establishment of the University of Africa, Toru Orua and Bayelsa State Polytechnic at Aleibiri, and funding of scholarship programmes within and outside the country among others.

Obuebite assured that the state government was working towards ensuring the successful commencement of the Maritime Academy in Okpoama.