Rising states IGR supporting need for restructuring ahead 2019 elections
Strong indication emerged Friday last week, showing that several states who hitherto do not give credence to Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), have stepped up their drive and have made good returns.
Analysts say, the development which is salutary to restructuring will further deepen the need and make states that had been in opposition to change their stand.
This is based on the fact that states IGR will rise more at the end of restructuring when states will become in charge of resources within their territory with only one option of paying resource tax to the federal government.
Only weekend, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), released the IGR figures for states of the federation for the third quarter of this year, with 19 states generating a total revenue of N149.45bn.
NBS was quick to note that 17 states are yet to submit their IGR reports for the period.
According to the report, Lagos State led with the highest IGR with N73.74bn; while Ogun State followed with N16.9bn.
Business Hilights recalls that a recent report by the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN), showed that Ogun State in the last couple of years had been harvesting deep pocket real sector investors that are Lagos-bound due to its introduction of attractive incentives for investors. The development has caused massive exodus of old and new deep pocket investors from Lagos to Ogun. Many of the companies hinged their move to good transport system, cheap labour and availability of land and other incentives.
Following Lagos and Ogun in that order are Delta State which recorded N13bn in IGR; Kaduna, N6.3bn; Oyo, N5.6bn; Enugu, N4.7bn; Bayelsa, N4.3bn; Akwa Ibom, N3.3bn; Cross River, N2.83bn; and Ondo, N2.7bn; and Plateau, N2.5bn.
Others are Osun, N2.4bn; Benue, N2.3bn; Imo, N1.6bn; Jigawa N1.6bn; Taraba, N1.5bn; Ekiti N1.3bn; Zamfara, N1.2bn; and Yobe, N1.1bn.
It would be recalled that the Acting Chairman, Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Shettima Abba-Gana, had said the decline in allocation from the Federation Account by over 30 per cent had made it imperative for the commission to assist states to increase their IGR.
He said while some states had made efforts to increase their IGR to a level that was up to the amount they were getting from the Federation Account, others had yet to make such efforts.
