The director general of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum(NGF), Asishana Okaura has declared that revenue generation is a top priority for governors in view of dwindling federal allocations .
He stated this yesterday at the training on human resources management for state internal revenue services(North Central region) in Abuja.
According to him, “Our role is to help our principals govern better. Revenue generation is a priority for governors, what we are doing is to further equip the human capacity of the tax agencies.
He noted that implementing a strong human resources management strategy is key to effective tax administration.
He told the tax managers that for their service to be at the forefront of domestic revenue mobilisation, it needs the right people, the right vision and a good execution plan.
“ I want to put on record that over the years, a number of state internal revenue service have put in place administrative reforms, which have made them very efficient in the revenue generating space in addition to being reference institutions in domestic revenue mobilisation ,” he said.
For some, the DG pointed out that their governments had provided support by instituting some measure of administrative autonomy,which will help carry out their functions more effectively.
On his part during his goodwill message, executive secretary, Joint Tax board (JTB),Oseni Elamah expressed appreciation for the role the NGF is playing towards ensuring the attainment of the lofty ideals of enhanced revenue generation in the country, especially given the need for states to explore alternative sources of funding under the reality of dwindling federal allocation.
Noting that the NGF has been reinforcing the role of the JTB, he said the implementation of the states internally generated revenue( IGR) reform initiative is just one of such collaborations.
He further explained that the initiative that has as its primary objective the constructive engagement of the state chief executives of selected states is currently constrained in optimising their revenue generation and administrative capacity.
He also disclosed that the JTB is currently on the verge of coordinating a nationwide joint tax audit exercise,a collaboration between the state internal revenue services and the federal Inland revenue service(FIRS).
“ The peer review learning event is another initiative that is piloted by the NGF in partnership with the JTB.
The initiative has the primary objective of engaging chairmen of the respective revenue authorities via technical sessions to exchange ideas and map out strategies for increasing IGR at the respective level of governance,” he stated.
