The Abia Government has said that it recorded about ₦15.5 billion Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) between January and June 2024.
The Commissioner for Finance, Mike Akpara, disclosed this at Monday’s news briefing on the outcome of the State Executive Council meeting at the Government House, Umuahia.
Akpara said that the state had recorded a significant increase in its IGR and expressed delight that the figures had continued to improve every month.
“Before now, we were running at year-to-date around 59% or 58% but as at today we were doing 62% and it is quite different from what we used to get.
“The IGR got from January to June was ₦15,499,482,456.70 and as at July 1 to July 6, we got ₦17,010, 976,942.34,” the commissioner said.
He said that from January to date, the state generated an average of ₦17 billion, while in 2022, the IGR was ₦16 billion. He also said that in 2023, there was a slight increase when the present administration came in and figures showing a significant increase were recorded in the state’s IGR.
Akpara said that the monthly average revenue is indeed a crucial metric for understanding income patterns because there are times when it could either increase or decrease.
“The way revenue comes in, you cannot say your IGR will be ₦3 billion.
“There is something called monthly average revenue, if you look at monthly average revenue in June 23 to June 29, it was ₦2.5billion.
“If June 23 to June 29 had an average revenue of ₦2.5 billion, that provides a clearer picture of the consistent income flow during that period.
“This means there might be a time when one would do ₦3 billion there might be a time one would do ₦2.1 billion
“As at July 1 to July 6, we were doing ₦2.7 billion as an average, and this indicates that IGR is cyclical. It has a cycle of how it runs,” Akpara added.
He said that the government had set a target for itself in monthly revenue generation as an encouragement to boost the state’s IGR.
According to him, beyond the state’s budget, the government had given itself the target to generate ₦4.3 billion average monthly and a target of ₦52.4 billion by the end of the year.
“We have ourselves set a target that is far away from what is in the budget so that it will ginger us to make sure we meet the target.
“But in the budget, it is not what we have but we are looking up to this to be able to meet the target stated in the budget,” he stated.
Also, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Ferdinand Ekeoma, said that the government had set up a multipurpose task force as a mechanism to ensure that taxes were paid effectively.
“For the fact that we are doing these, it means we are going to experience a consistent increase in the revenue generation.
“We expect to do far better than we are doing at the moment,” Ekeoma noted.