By Matthew Ajai-Kume
Benue State Government projected its Internally General Revenue (IGR), for year 2021 to 18 billion naira.
The Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, disclosed this recently in a chat with journalists, shortly after he inspected the BENGIS project at the Ministry of Lands, Survey and Solid Minerals premises and the on-going renovation work at the new corporate Headquarters of the Board of Internal Revenue Service (BIRS) in Makurdi.
“At the moment, the state is generating between 700 and 800 million naira monthly Internally Generated Revenue,” the governor noted. He further said, the state government has taken deliberate steps to block financial leakages such as terminal contract of revenue collecting agencies, most of who were noted for diverting funds into their private pockets.
“The intention of my administration is to have a befitting revenue generating edifice with state of the art facilities that could motivate staff towards effective revenue generation,.
He noted the importance and critical purpose of the two projects to the state, which on completion would not only generate revenue but also create employment opportunities for teeming Benue youths.
According to Governor Ortom, completion of the work on BENGIS building would cost the state government 6 billion naira and that the contractor had only six months to complete the project.
On the new corporate headquarters of BIRS, the governor expressed satisfaction with what the contractor had done so far. “The contractor had told me that the work on new BIRS headquarters would be completed latest June this year,” he stated.
