Dwindling allocation: Kwara to improve revenue drive

Worried by the dwindling revenue from the federation account, the Kwara State government said yesterday that it would strengthen its revenue generation drive to augment the shortfall.

The state governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, said to show government’s commitment to improving the state’s internally generated revenue, an agency would be set up for the purpose and that it would be independent of any ministry.

While receiving members of the state Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), the governor said the new agency would take over the revenue process and agree on the sharing formula.

He called on council chairmen to key into the programme in order to further drive governance.

“Gone are the days when we take excess crude oil money among others. Success of any governor or council chairman will now depend on individual ingenuity and resourcefulness other than availability. We need to come up with a new way of generating IGR to support us in accessing money from capital market to embark on capital projects,” he said.

He therefore directed the leadership of ALGON to meet with the state commissioner for Finance to design a way of synergizing and keying into the state government’s method of augmenting the dwindling allocation.

He further stated that his second term would witness an improved compliance with international standard for efficiency in government’s business and also blockage of leakages with a view to creating better platform for revenue generation.