The Abia state government has announced that it recorded an Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of about N15.5 billion from January to June 2024.
The Commissioner for Finance, Mike Akpala, disclosed this on Monday at a press conference on the outcome of the State Executive Council meeting at the Government House, Umuahia. Mr. Akpala said the state recorded a significant increase in IGR and expressed delight that the figure continues to improve month on month.
“So far this year, we have been at about 59 or 58 percent, today we are at 62 percent, very different from before. “From January to June, the IGR was N15,499,482,456.70 and from July 1 to July 6, the IGR was N17,010,976,942.34,” the commissioner said.
He said the state’s average income from January to date is N17 billion, with the IGR for 2022 standing at N16 billion. He also said there will be a slight increase in 2023 when the current administration takes office.
He said the figures indicate that the state’s IGR is increasing significantly. Akpala said average monthly income is an important indicator in understanding income patterns as it can go up or down.
“Given the way revenue is coming in, we cannot say the IGR will be N3 billion.
“There is something called average monthly revenue. If you look at the average monthly sales from June 23 to 29, it was N2.5billion.
“If the average revenue from June 23 to 29 is N2.5 billion, it makes it more clear that there is a steady flow of income during that period.
“So, in some case, you receive 3 billion naira and in other time you earn 2.1 billion naira.
“From July 1 to July 6, you earned an average of 2.7 billion naira. This shows that IGR is cyclical. It has a cycle of how it operates,” Akpara revealed.
He said the government was setting monthly revenue generation targets to boost the state’s IGR. He said the government has set a target of having an average of 4.3 billion naira per month and 52.4 billion naira by the end of the year, over and above the national budget.
“We have set targets to achieve that, which are very different from those set out in the budget.
“But the budget does not say what we have, but we are working hard to achieve the targets set out in the budget,” he said.
Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Ferdinand Ekeoma, also said the government has set up a multi-purpose task force to ensure efficient tax collection.
“For the fact that we are doing these, it means we are going to experience a steady increase in the revenue generation.
“We expect to do far ahead than we are doing at the moment,” Ekeoma revealed.
