Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, said his administration has set a target of N10 billion as its monthly Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), up from the current N6 billion.

Amosun spoke on Tuesday during a Town Hall Meeting on the 2015 budget held at Kuto, Abeokuta.

He explained that it was the only way the state government could survive the dwindling allocation from the Federation Account.

Amosun, while fielding questions from stakeholders at the event, said the new target would take effect from 2015 and would not in any way inconvenience the people.

He disclosed that funds from the Federation Account had been dwindling since 2011 and explained that it worsened to the extent that many states found it difficult to pay their workers.

The wage bill of the state, he added, including allowances, had risen to about N8 billion monthly adding that “only Ogun and Lagos states now generate revenue exceeding the allocation from the Federation Account”.

“What the administration is doing is to make Ogun State the economic hub of the nation ahead of Lagos State,” he said.

He expressed happiness that the state had begun to take its pride of place in the comity of nations with the recent classification as the industrial capital of Nigeria.

“What we are doing today is to take stock and see how far we have gone and those things we need to do better by further listening to our people.

“Ogun will get to a time when it will be auto-driven, system driven so that governors will not have difficulty in making things happen, they will not have difficulty in paying salaries and doing all of those and I am happy we are taking our prime position in the comity of nations.

“We are now the industrial capital of Nigeria but what we intend doing is to make Ogun State the economic capital of Nigeria, we want to challenge Lagos.

“The Finance Minister had confirmed that there are challenges in revenue accruing from oil due to oil theft and, as we are speaking, they are yet to pay us, the only way we can pay salaries is to think outside the box and see how we can improve our IGR.

“We are increasing the IGR without unnecessarily inconveniencing our people, the target is N10 billion by next year because there is no way our wages will exceed N10 billion. With this, we will not rely on the Federal Government again, but we still have a big challenge to pay our salaries,” Amosun added.

Speaking earlier, the state Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Mrs. Oluwande Muoyo, said the Amosun administration “believes strongly in participatory democracy and has always carried the people along in the process of preparing the state’s annual budget”.

While highlighting the various achievements of the administration, she noted that according to the 2014 World Bank Report on Doing Business in Nigeria, Ogun State was listed as one of the five most improved states in the country.

“The same World Bank in its 2008 and 2010 Reports had ranked the state as one of the lowest performers among the 36 states in Nigeria. No doubt, this is a significant progress,” she added.



http://dailyindependentnig.com/2014/10/ogun-targets-n10b-monthly-igr/