The Enugu State Government has reduced annual land use charges across the state and unveiled plans to introduce a property identification application as part of reforms aimed at modernising land administration and revenue collection.
The Chairman of the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service (ESIRS), Mr. Emmanuel Nnamani, disclosed this during a press briefing marking his third year in office, where he outlined reforms undertaken by the agency to improve revenue administration and ease tax compliance.
Nnamani said the planned property identification application would assign a unique identification number to properties captured under the land use charge system, enabling the government to build a reliable database of properties across the state.
He said students and unemployed youths would be engaged to conduct the property enumeration exercise and would receive weekly payments for their services.
“Students, unemployed youths are going to be engaged for the enumeration and we will pay them every week,” Nnamani said.
Under the revised land use charge regime, the highest annual charge for properties in high-value areas such as Independence Layout and GRA is now ₦70,000, while properties in areas including Emene and Abakpa will attract ₦20,000 annually.
Properties in rural communities, he added, will attract an annual charge of ₦10,000.
Nnamani, however, clarified that the reform was not designed to impose land use charges on people living in mud houses.
He said the property identification system would provide the state with accurate data for planning while making land use charge collection more transparent and predictable.
The ESIRS chairman said the agency had also transformed its revenue collection system from a largely conventional civil service model into a technology-driven platform.
He attributed the shift to the autonomy granted the service under the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service Establishment and Consolidated Revenue Law 2025.
“This autonomy as a service is actually an international standard in revenue collection. So the international standard is that if you must be the one collecting revenue, you must have autonomy, whereby you avoid so many bureaucracies. You also avoid some interference,” Nnamani said.
According to him, the reforms have also focused on improving staff capacity and changing the mindset of personnel to adapt to a technology-driven revenue environment.
Nnamani said ESIRS had replaced its former single payment gateway with a central revenue management platform supporting multiple payment channels.
“We now onboarded additional seven payment gateways to collect our revenue. Which include Remita, eTransact, FlutterWaves, MoneyPoint, Nineswift, UPS. And all of them are collecting money for us,” he said.
He said the system ensures that a disruption affecting one payment platform would not halt revenue collection across the state.
Taxpayers can now make payments through banks, the ESIRS website, ATMs, debit cards, bank transfers and USSD, while more than 300 POS terminals have been deployed across government offices, hospitals and area offices.
“Ease of payment is key. So that ease of payment helped us to collect money. Even on Saturdays, even on Sundays,” Nnamani said.
He added: “We now collect Monday to Monday.”
ESIRS expands informal-sector taxation
Nnamani also disclosed that ESIRS had expanded digital revenue collection into the informal sector through an electronic ticketing system covering markets, transport operators, street traders and artisans.
He said the system consolidates government payments and provides taxpayers with digital evidence of payment.
“We entered the informal sector using a technology called e-tickets. That technology is a beautiful thing in informal sector taxation in the entire country,” he said.
The agency, he added, had activated the collection of stamp duty and capital gains tax while expanding the administration of land use charges.
Nnamani said the reforms were broadening the state’s revenue base and reducing leakages associated with cash collection.
“We ban cash collection of revenue. You know cash is never complete,” he said.
He said the combination of property data, digital payment systems, e-ticketing, expanded payment channels and improved staff capacity would enable ESIRS to build a more efficient and transparent revenue administration system.
According to him, the reforms are aimed not only at increasing government revenue but also at making compliance easier for taxpayers while providing the state with reliable data for planning and administration.