Akwa Ibom generates N34.8bn IGR in 2022 – AKIRS
By Itoro Bassey
Akwa Ibom State Internal Revenue Service (AKIRS) says it generated N34.8 billion as internally generated revenue (IGR) in 2022.
Mr Okon Okon, the Executive Chairman, Akwa Ibom State Internal Revenue Service, gave the figure while presenting highlights of the 10–year report of the state’s internal revenue generation at the Season Two of Inter-Ministerial Briefing organized by the state government in Uyo, on Thursday, on the theme, “Tracking the Promise”.
Okon said that the 2022 revenue generation surpassed the board’s N31.4 billion generated in 2021, the year economic activities resumed full scale across the state after the 2020 pandemic year.
The yearly IGR figures Mr Okon presented at the occasion showed that in 2020, N30.6 billion was raised, while the board raked in N38.2 billion in 2019.
Similarly in 2018, the board generated N24.2 billion, while N16 billion was raised in 2017, with about N1 billion leap from N15 billion of the previous year.
Commenting on the ten years history of internally generated revenue in Akwa Ibom State, covering the last two years of the previous administration and the eight years of Governor Emmanuel, Okon said the governor, after he understudied the tax system upon his assumption of office in 2015, embarked on massive and large-scale transformation of the revenue service.
“In 2013, we met a figure of 15.4 billion as total IGR for that year. This figure was from the joint tax board. In 2014, the figure rose to 15.7 billion. That was what the state used to hav as total IGR”.
Mr. Okon, who noted that the state’s IGR started picking up in 2015 when Mr. Udom Emmanuel took over as governor, attributed the rise in the state IGR to strategic measures taken by the management of the board as delegated by the Governor Emmanuel administration to increase its efficiency.
He emphasized that some of the measures include the signing of the Akwa Ibom state revenue administration law 2016 (as amended) which granted autonomy to AKIRS and automation of tax collection process which made tax payment easier for the people, among others.
“As a Board, we introduced technology in our operations, which has enabled online submission of returns, and payment of taxes, among others. This has limited human interference and enhanced transparency.
“With all sense of humility, our reputation has improved unlike in the past years where tax payers did not fully trust the system. That is why we encourage tax payers to pay their taxes into the approved bank accounts”.
Earlier in his address, the state commissioner for Information and Strategy, Comrade Ini Ememobong, noted that having had a successful Season 1 of the programme in March, his ministry “graciously thought it wise to have Season 2 and the Akwa Ibom State government graciously gave their approval for this”.
“We have brought in six MDAs and specially decided to include the Environmental Protection and Waste Management Board on this edition, given Akwa Ibom’s recurring win of the cleanest state in Nigeria. It is pertinent to know how we achieved that and the challenges therein”, Ememobong added.
Other commissioners who gave accounts of the successs recorded by their ministries, as part of the completion agenda of the Governor Emmanuel administration, include Engr. Camillus Umoh, Commissioner for Trade and Investment; Dr. John Etim, Commissioner for Power and Petroleum Development; Chief Uno Etim Uno , Commissioner for Transportation; Dr Ini Adiakpan , Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare, and Prince Ikim, Chairman, Akwa Ibom State Environmental Protection and Waste Management Agency.
The occasion was also attended by members of NBA, NUJ, heads of broadcast media stations, members of the traditional institution, CSOs, members of CAN, Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio, and the National Council of Women Societies, among other groups.
* Written by Itoro Bassey
