The Niger State government yesterday said the Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province, (ISWAP), has taken over some communities in Shiroro and Borgu forests sharing a border with Benin Republic.
The Secretary to the State Government, (SSG), Ahmed Matane, revealed this to newsmen shortly after the screening exercise of the 2022 Budget proposal of his office at the State’s House of Assembly, in Minna, the State capital.
He, however, said security agencies are working seriously to eliminate the sects that had taken over some communities in the forests under the National Park Service around Babana area, sharing a border with Benin Republic.
According to him, “Government has taken appropriate measures to eliminate them from those locations; security agencies have been doing a lot of operations in those areas”.
On improving the State’s Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR), the SSG said the State government has developed a framework for increasing its IGR and putting the right structure in place to enhance revenue.
He added that part of the efforts includes the appointment of a new chairman for the Board of Internal Revenue Service and the commencement of the implementation of the harmonised IGR law. “We are also doing monthly and quarterly reviews of all revenue agencies to meet and account for what they are supposed to generate, based on the 2022 budget. With all these mechanisms in place, we should be hitting N1 billion per month and that is our target,” he further stated.
The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Rules and Business, while screening the Office of the SSG, charged the State government to improve on its monthly IGR.
He said the N700 million being generated every month is not adequate to address the challenges of the State, while urging the Government to make its printing press and other abandoned revenue-generation assets functional.
The lawmakers noted that the printing press and those abandoned assets of the State government were capable of generating huge revenue for the State.
