Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Imo State Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in December hit N1 billion as against the N250 million generated in November 2019, says Governor Emeka Ihedioha.
He stated this during a new year broadcast, yesterday, where he explained that the feat was achieved through resilience and determination not to rely heavily on Federal Government monthly allocation.
“I have stressed severally that to fund meaningful development, we cannot depend on monthly federal allocations. Not only are these funds static, they are subject to deductions emanating from past debts and refund on bailout funds received.
“In any case, we spend about 73 per cent of these allocations on salaries and pensions, leaving us with barely nothing for the other myriads of challenges confronting us. It became imperative, therefore, that we had to strengthen our IGR mechanisms.
“We are very delighted to note that from about N250million that we met on ground monthly, IGR has risen to over N1billion in the month of December 2019. We are focused on an exponential increase in 2020.”
The governor said his administration would look beyond the normal revenue generation mechanism to focus on deriving more funds through oil and gas businesses.
Governor Ihedioha said 2020 will afford his administration the opportunity to renew pledges made to the people during electioneering.
“2020 is the famed year of possibilities. Metaphorically, 2020 also symbolizes complete vision. In Imo, our vision for the future is very clear; we believe that all these possibilities are attainable. We have the determination of a committed executive team, the partnership of a collaborative legislature, the wisdom of an independent judiciary and the heart-warming support of an enlightened, God-fearing and hardworking people,” Ihedioha said.
He said the harmonious relationship between executive and legislature resulted in an unprecedented record of 18 bills passed signed into law.
Ihedioha said government also established strong links with multilateral development partners and was attracting donor-agencies fund for projects in water projects, erosion control, rural access roads, healthcare, agriculture and education.
Ihedioha said in keeping with his promise, one of the first actions he took as governor was the release of N500 million counterpart funding to activate N9.9 billion funding for the Urualla Erosion Control Project in Ideato North Council from the World Bank NEWMAP Projects.
“Similarly, we paid counterpart funding to catalyse the Rural Access and Mobility Project (RAMP) valued at N13.5 billion also from the World Bank. Under this programme, works are ongoing in 88 rural roads projects covering 380.7km of roads across 26 local governments areas” Ihedioha said.