Politics:

GOV. EMMANUEL HAS REVAMPED THE REVENUE GENERATING MACHINERY OF THE STATE – USAID

By Raymond Alphonsus

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has commended the Gov. Udom Emmanuel led government for revamping the States Revenue Generation Machinery.

Speaking in Uyo the state capital at a workshop themed “Political Economy Analysis and Conflict Assessment Framework” the state lead team (state to state: Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Gombe, Sokoto) Borve Paago Mabel noted that “Akwa Ibom State Internally Generated Revenue has improved tremendously. The state has a website so it is public. You can access the website and do a comparative analysis from 2018 to 2019 and 2020. We always look at data. We can’t work without data so that we do not give false information. The state Internally generated revenue service is working towards full automation of its processes such that revenue collection is automated from every angle and the MDAs, ministries are pouring into it. That’s why the treasury single account is running in the state. The government is centrally coordinating each of these and just looking at the dashboard, you can see what is going on, that the tax returns are well coordinated and leakages in public finance management are blocked. We are working with the state ministry of finance, the Akwa Ibom state Government”.

The workshop which held at Rosmohr hotel in Ewet Housing Estate had in attendance the commissioner of finance, stakeholders in the government financial sector, commissioner.

Akwa Ibom State Governor His Excellency Mr. Udom Emmanuel had introduced Innovations and Initiatives which provided a road map for exploiting the Internally Generating Revenue (IGR) to bring beams and glimpses of sunlight that have shown upon the Akwa Ibom State Internal Revenue Service (AKIRS) in the Last four years plus.

The sterling strides AKIRS has recorded is due to Governor Emmanuel’s Vision and Sound understanding of Contemporary Socio-Economic trends. Most prominently was the Granting of Autonomy to AKIRS, a Critical point of inflextion in today’s taxation management.

Governor Emmanuel’s signing of the bill which granted Autonomy to AKIRS brought in the first Autonomous Executive Board for Akwa Ibom State Internal Revenue Service with Mr. Okon Okon as the Executive Chairman.

After Inauguration in 2016 in line with the Governor’s Dakkada Philosophy, an operational compass Code-named: ‘Revenue and Institutional Transformation (REVITA)’ was lunched which become a dynamic vehicle that provided a clear and strategic direction for transformation. REVITA was designed to achieve five objectives namely Rapid and significant growth in IGR and tax payers database; introduction of technology/ automaton of processes; improvement in physical infrastructure and work tools; humanness and staff welfare and building the institution.

As expected the Governor’s new innovations brought in beautiful results, in 2019 the IGR hit on all time high of N32.29 billion since the states creation and Akwa Ibom rose to 7th position in country-wide state profile, according to the National bureau of statistics. This is from N14.79 billion before the board came in 2016 according to budgIT 2020 states of states report. In 2019, Akwa Ibom met the 20% basic IGR growth target necessary to receive $1m grant incentive offered by the World Bank Supported by SFTAS Program to Nigerian States.

Worthy to note was year 2020, where despite the Covid-19 Worldwide lockdown and EndSARS protests, the Agency still racked in N30.7billion for the state and was 8th on the National IGR table as published by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics. The N30.7b was only 5% lower than previous year 2019. Although we don’t have the first quarter of 2021 IGR result, Analyst forcast that Akwa Ibom will continue to improve on the national IGR table given the focus and tenacity of the board and its Leadership.

The Okon Okon led board of AKIRS which has generated over N100 billion in four years has ensured that more revenues are collected without an increase in taxes or introduction of new ones. The magic which accounts for this is that there is a new spirit of enterprise controlling the tax administration in the state. AKIRS has reaped these many gains from strategic stakeholders engagement, improved staff welfare scheme, on aggressive renovation and retooling of tax offices in all 31 local government areas, provided buses, motorcycles to enable tax officers access hard to reach riverine areas and new tax offices have also been opened, training of revenue officers with International Monetary Fund (IMF) on TADAT the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF); activation of State Joint Revenue Committee (SIRC).
His Excellency Governor Udom Emmanuel on inaugurating the Okon Okon led AKIRS Board in April 2017 said “this is a thorough-bred professional and a round peg in a around hole. Expectations of Akwa Ibom people are high”. Today Akwa Ibomite can proudly say that the Governor got it right in his enviable acumen for hiring. Using the Okon Okon paradigm shift, Governor Emmanuel’s characteristic circumspection and choice of team players have not only been justified but celebrated as second to none.