By Stanley Onyekwere
A radical and aggressive revenue drive is required if the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) must meet its objectives of building a world class capital city, according to FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello.
Bello made the submission of the at a recent workshop for Revenue Officers organised by the Economic Planning, Revenue Generation, and Public-private Partnership Secretariat of the FCTA.
Recall that Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in the FCT is around N69.1 billion annually, making it the second highest subnational IGR earner away from Lagos state with a figure of N267.2 billion.
However, the minister in his goodwill message at the closing ceremony of the workshop,said the FCTA must think up strategies to push its revenue drive.
Bello, while commending the secretariat for the initiative of the training workshop said, “The importance of improving our internally generated revenue cannot be overstated if we are to fulfill our mandate and meet our objectives of building our country, into a world-class capital city.
He however noted that with the right strategies, the FCT has the potential to be the highest internal revenue-generating subnational in Nigeria.
“Although we currently rank second (only to Lagos State) in internally generated revenue amongst our nation’s sub nationals, it is no secret that what we generate, (no matter how seemingly impressive) is a far cry from what we require to fulfill our mandate.
“That is why your capacity as revenue generating officers in the employ of the FCTA must be improved to enable you to meet up with your responsibilities.
“It is, however, essential that you fully understand and appreciate the import of your responsibilities to the FCT Administration and by extension, the FCT as a whole and that is why workshops such as this are highly welcome”, he stressed.
Earlier at the opening ceremony of the workshop, the Mandate Secretary of Economic Planning, Revenue Generation, and PPP, Lukman Dabiri Agboola, said the FCTA will compete with Lagos on revenue base which is the highest revenue-generating state in Nigeria.
While urging the revenue officers to brace up for the responsibilities ahead, the Secretary said the exercise of revenue diversification is a new beginning for the FCT Administration.
He said that the era of dependence on oil or budget is over, vowing to activate the principles of revenue diversification in such a way that could put the FCT ahead of other states in IGR.
“Presently all over the world, the dependence on oil and budget is coming to an end. The only way out for us is to build on our revenue base, budget is about procrastination because it is the money you do not have at hand. But revenue is the sure money we can always plan for,” he added.
He further explained that the revenue staff is the future of the FCTA, the lifeline and nucleus body of the FCTA and therefore, “We need to go out aggressively to get the revenue for the FCTA for everybody to be comfortable.
