The monthly Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of Kogi State has risen from N300 million to N1.5 billion in the last seven years.
Governor Yahaya Bello made this revelation while fielding questions during a two-day training organised for crime and politics reporters in Abuja.
Gov Bello, while x-raying his administration in the last seven years, said the state’s monthly IGR fluctuated between N200m and N300m when he assumed office.
He noted that one of the things he realised on assumption of office was that there was no way the government could be able to meet the demand of the state’s people on a N300m IGR.
He said: “Kogi State has huge deposits of solid minerals. In a particular local government, I discovered that huge mining activities were going on. Some legal and others illegal and the legal ones were paying a meager sum to the government while they pocket over N10bn monthly.
“Other revenue sources were also going into private pockets. So, I decided that the state cannot continue like that. One of the things I then decided to do was to introduce the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and mandate all state revenue agencies to pay into the single account.
“We have grown the IGR to about N1.5bn monthly. With this, we have been able to implement people-oriented projects, starting from roads, education, and health.”
Daily Trust