OGSG TASKS LG CHAIRMEN ON IMPROVED REVENUE GENERATION

 OGSG TASKS LG CHAIRMEN ON IMPROVED REVENUE GENERATION

Ogun State Government has tasked chairmen in the 20 Local Government Areas of the State, to intensify efforts at improving their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), and not solely rely on the Federal or State Government for funds.

Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Ganiyu Hamzat stated this at the January 2023 edition of the Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC) meeting at Oba’s Complex, Oke-Mosan Abeokuta.

Hon. Hamzat said the move becomes necessary to enable them to have more funds both from allocations and IGR to execute beneficial projects at the grassroots, noting that the excess fund in the recent time needed to be increased in fulfillment of their mandate to their people.

The Commissioner said the Ministry would continue to ensure funds accruable to Local Governments were well utilised, stating that its Inspectorate and Monitoring department had commenced monitoring exercise, to make project execution conform with the required standard.

In his presentation, the Chief Economic Adviser to the Governor and  Commissioner for Finance Mr. Dapo Okubadejo, represented by the Permanent Secretary and Accountant-General of the State Treasury, Mr. Babatunde Aregbesola, disclosed that a total sum of N7,661,239,092.01 was received as December 2022 Allocation for the 20 Local Government Areas in the State, which emanated from Statutory Revenue, Value Added Taxes (VAT), Exchange Gain, Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) and Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P).

Okubadejo said a sum of N7,221,233,073.00 would be used to pay the first-line charges, which include: Primary School Teachers’ Salary, Local Government Staff Salary, Pensions, Traditional Councils, other Payment of Pay As You Earn (PAYE)  Arears, Statutory Payment to Local Government Service Commission, Release to Local Government and other charges, adding that it excluded PAYE and five percent Bond on Pension amounting to a total sum of N314,164,709.56, which are yet to be effected, while the sum of N754,170,728.57 remains as gross surplus for the month.

Contributing, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Kolawole Fagbohun urged the Chairmen to make judicious use of funds available at their disposal, embarking on projects that could improve the lots of their people.