Niger Gov Harps on Increase in IGR
Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, has harped on the need for the state to lay more emphasis on how to generate more funds internally “because the future looks bleak for the global economy.”
Bello made the remarks in an address at the opening of a 3 day retreat on ‘Administrative Relationship Strategic Communication and Management of Public Finance for Economic Development’ for the newly appointed members of the State Executive Council.
A statement by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Mary Noel Berje, quoted Bello as saying at the retreat held at the 5th Chukker Polo Club in Kaduna that the state must work towards moving away from overreliance on federal government allocation and devise other means of generating fund to strengthen the state economy
“The future looks very bleak financially, and things will be tougher,” Berje quoted the governor as saying.
He added: “We need to block leakages, and we must do some structural adjustments to survive the challenges of the future, and the only solution is to move away from depending on federal allocations and raise our internally generated revenue so that federal allocation becomes just as an augmentation. Our main revenue should come from what we generate internally and what we get as FAAC should be an augmentation
“We must change the narratives because we must survive. We must move our system from basically a publicly-reliance system to a private sector system.” The governor further charged the participants on financial prudence, urging then to avoid memos that “are not relevant,” and by all means complete ongoing projects before embarking on new ones which must affect the lives of the people.
Bello described the retreat as timely and informative, urging the participants to ensure they block all leakages in the system so as to improve the finances of the state.
In his remarks, the Chief of Staff, Government House, Alhaji Balarebe Ibrahim, commended the governor for the initiative which he said has given the participants the opportunity to brainstorm and face the challenges of service delivery to the people