Lagos, other 35 states raked N936.47bn IGR in one year- NBS

Motolani Oseni

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said that Lagos, Rivers and Ogun states and 33 other states recorded the sum of N936.47 billion Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in 2017. Lagos state in 2017 generated N333.97 billion IGR, 10.43 per cent increase over N302.4 billion generated in 2016 while Rivers generated N89.48 billion IGR in 2017 against N85.3 billion in 2016 as reported by NBS. Ogun state, a neighbouring state to Lagos state generated N74.8 billion IGR in 2017, 2.54 per cent increase over N72.98 billion generated in 2016. Bureau in its published IGR at the state level for 2017 fiscal year said a total N823.16billion was generated in 2016 as against N936.47 billion in 2017, representing a growth of 13.77 per cent year on year. According to the NBS report, at the end of half year of 2017, total revenue generated by states was put at N453.83billion as against N482.64billion in the first half of 2017. Analysts who spoke with our correspondent during said, state governors were adopting a series of tactics as provided by the law to increase IGR. They expressed that revenue generated by these state governments on yearly basis is based on economy growth of each state, stressing that some states are not providing needed amenities to boost revenue generation. A tax analyst, Mr. Gbolahan Bilewu, had explained to Nigerian NewsDirect that states must grant their revenue agencies autonomy to operate. According to him, “A few states in Nigeria are not giving their agencies autonomy to operate. If you check, states with autonomy are doing better than states without autonomy. “The best way for a state to increase its IGR is through taxation. If a state can get it right from the onset, they can get more IGR from taxation. State government must professionalize their tax agencies. “One of the factors that are making Lagos state revenue agency better is that they impose on their staff to be a member of a professional body.” He noted that state government must be transparent in the utilization of funds generated internally. According to him, “when taxpayers see the utilization of the IGR, definitely, they will want to pay tax. Lagos state is providing the needed infrastructure so that taxpayers can continue to pay more taxes. “In civil service states, it is a different story entirely as most people do not want to pay tax. If you have good infrastructure and power, it will attract more population and investment into a state. “State governors needed to open up their states for investors and by so doing, more revenue will be generated.” Meanwhile, three Northen states, Kebbi, Bauchi and Yobe generated the lowest IGR in 2017. The Bureau report disclosed that Kebbi in 2017 generated N4.39 billion while Bauchi and Yobe states generated N4.37 billion and N3.6 billion respectively.
The report by NBS also disclosed that the net Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocation in the year 2017 is put at N1.73 trillion while the total revenue available to the states is put at N2.68 trillion. However, the value of foreign debt stands at $19.9billion while domestic debt hits N3.35 trillion at the end of 2017 full year respectively.