Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger State has inaugurated a 28-member State and Local Governments joint revenue committee to improve internally generated revenue of the state.

Mary Noel-Berje, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, said in a press release that Governor Bello, who inaugurated the committee at the Government House, in Minna, explained that it would be harmonising revenue collection system for the state and local governments, stressing that the effort was to boost the internally generated revenue of the state and local governments as well as halt the total reliance on federal allocation.

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“This total reliance on Federal allocation has affected the state as we are finding it difficult to pay salaries both at state and local governments levels.

“This committee will better serve the local government areas than the state because we have more population in the local government areas as all revenues will be in harmonised form,” he said.

The Governor noted that the harmonised revenue collection system was in the interest of the people, particularly at the local government level.

He reeled out terms of reference for the committee as thus: to harmonize task administration; deal with matters of common concern to the state and local governments; to enlightened members of the public on revenue matters.

Others are; to consider relevant resolutions to the Joint Task Board for implementation in the state and to advise the board on revenue matters.

In his remarks, the Chairman of the committee, who doubles as the Acting Chairman, Niger State Board of Internal Revenue, Ahmad Garba Gunna, said that the committee will jointly work with all the 25 local governments in the State to ensure that they achieve a positive outcome.

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