New revenue system’ll make LGAs viable by Sept —Obaseki

By Simon Ebegbulem

BENIN—FOLLOWING the dwindling allocation accruing to local government areas  in Edo State from the federation account, governor the state, Mr  Godwin Obaseki has promised to make 15 out of the 18 LGAs of the state financially viable by September this year, with the latest reforms in the revenue sector.

Obaseki who disclosed this at a 2-day retreat organised by the state government for local government administrators in the state, stressed his administration’s commitment to work with local government administrators to boost their internally generated revenue, IGR.

According to the governor, the drop in crude oil price has made it impossible for federal allocations to sustain the local governments, “so this administration has decided to put measures in place to assist the councils boost their IGRs because we must put a stop to the problem of payment of salaries for council workers.

“Let us be frank with ourselves. We need to strategise on how we can boost revenue and reduce costs. We have introduced the use of technology to collect revenue for LGAs in the state. In the pilot phase of the scheme, we were able to raise IGR from N42, 000 to N500, 000 at nine different collection points in Oredo LGA on a daily basis,” he aded.

“With what we are getting now, we are going to make 15 out of  the 18 LGAs viable before September this year through the new method of IGR collection and that is why we appeal to Local Government administrators to support the process. And while we do that. We must also improve our intelligence gathering system to curtail security challenges in state” he stated.

Chairman of the Unified Local Government Services Commission, Mr Simon Imuekheme, explained that the retreat was geared towards the improvement of education, security, IGR and technology at the Local government councils therefore urged the Local Government administrators to key into the state government’s vision to improve IGR of their councils.

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