Kogi: Bello urges MDAs, KGIRS to improve State IGR

Kogi State Governor Alhaji Yahaya Bello has appealed to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to be in synergy with the management of Kogi State Internal Revenue Service (KGIRS) to improve the Internally Generated Revenue of the state.

Governor Bello who gave the charge in Government House Lokoja on Monday during internally generated revenue strategic workshop with MDAs organised by the management of KGIRS to chat a way forward for an improved revenue generation of the state said the collaborative effort will enable the government to discharge it’s social and economic responsibilities to the people.

The governor who urged KGIRS to block all leakages in the revenue generation of the state said the government cannot provide socio-economic amenities without an improved revenue generation to complement the monthly federal allocation to the state.

“We will soon be back to the second term that will kick off on the 27th of January, 2020. We are elected to serve the people through delivering a dividend of democracy and we cannot do that without finance from revenue.

“We are faced with a lot of security challenges; there are emerging threats from kidnappers, banditry among others.

“And for us to be able to do these, we need a lot of funds so we need the support of MDAs to help us in improving the revenue generation so that we can help our people especially the downtrodden. We will not want to enforce the laws but it should be complied with in the interest of the state.

“We need the cooperation and understanding of MDAs in ensuring that we block all loopholes by strictly adhering to all the laws to drive all the revenue by expanding the base to enable us to generate enough income for the state,

“It through the revenue base that we can satisfy our people in the area of infrastructural development such as education, health, youth empowerment, payment of N30,000 minimum wage and provision of basic social amenities among others,” he said.

Governor Bello, who promised to be transparent in spending every kobo accrued to the state, urged the ministry of finance to ensure prudence in the management of the resources of the state.

“Government money whether federal allocation or internally generated revenue or grant and donation, nobody can spend it without the approval by the authority saddled with that responsibility.

“Every kobo generated must be authorised to spend it and if you are spending it you must have value for such expenditure because if we take care and safeguard our one naira then our billions would be safeguarded”, he advised.