The latest report by an international independent organisation has rated Kwara second in revenue generation and 10th position out of the 36 states in the country making progress in terms of ease of doing business.
This was announced by Awodun, a professor of International Business and Entrepreneurship and chairman, Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS), while giving account of his stewardship at the media parley, held in Ilorin, the state capital today.
According to him, this was contained in African Report Index 2018, by an independent organisation that comes up with ‘Africa States Progress Report’.
The elated KWIRS boss, informed the pressmen that the state was next to Lagos government in IGR generation.
He stated that “All the states in Nigeria were surveyed on certain indexes and the report as at 2018, placed Kwara State as second after Lagos State.”
Explaining further, according to him, included poverty index.
“ Kwara was placed 10th out of 36 states on access to electricity. Kwara was 3rd on Internet users index. Kwara was 6th on ease of doing business index. Kwara was placed 10th on IGR per capita. The state was placed 7th out of the 36 states in Nigeria,” he expatiated.
“On infrastructure index, Kwara was placed 11th, on access to health index. Kwara was placed 10th on housing index; Kwara was 9th on primary education access index and was 8th on tertiary education. Kwara was placed 5th out of 36 state in Nigeria. All these were put together and used to determine the position for each state.”
Furthermore, the KWIRS boss asserted that the state currently generates about N2 billion as its IGR, something he said that was based on the proper management of its peculiarity, which necessitated handling the issue of tax with tact and persuasion.
Prof. Awodun recalled that before his administration came on board in September 2015, the state tax process was not as efficient.
“The Kwara IGR position, which was 27 among 39 states in 2015, has moved to 9th position by 2018.
“The story over the last three and a half years, particularly at the close of 2018, is that the IGR of the state increased to N23 billion, as opposed to N7.2 billion in 2015. This is just evidence of the impact of the reformed revenue collection process in the state.
“I can confidently say that what we have been able to achieve in Kwara which was attested to, by our colleagues at the joint task board. It is a significant step in the right direction by the state,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the Chairman KWIRS remains upbeat that they would do more to place Kwara in the first position.