Nigerian Governors strategise to boost IGR, implement State Police

The Governors Forum on Wednesday met to find ways of improving Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of states through the implementation of uniform standard in vehicle registration.

The Chairman of the Forum, Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara, said this while briefing State House Correspondents on the outcome of the forum’s meeting in Abuja.

He said the decision was based on two presentations to the forum on how to improve the IGR through revenues from vehicle licensing and traffic management.

According to him, the states were losing a lot of revenues in the past.

He also said the discussion also focused on customs duty to enable the states to join the rest of the world to have a licensing embedded in only a card, which could be swiped on a device to reveal all vehicle details.

“Today, what we are experiencing is bunch of papers which you sometimes find packed somewhere.’’ he said.

The governor noted that the common practice all over the world and in some West African countries was the presentation of only a card to vehicle inspection officers upon demand.

“We are trying to key in and we put a committee in place under the chairmanship of the governor of Bauchi, Mohammed Abubakar, to also relate with other companies interested in Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT).

“I think from there we can think about producing about one trillion cards over 10 years which has not been seen in the past.’’

Mr. Yari said the governors discussed the outstanding issue of stamp duty owed states, adding that the states were supposed to be in charge of stamp duty which is not the practice at present.

He said another committee headed by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo state would handle the stamp duty matter.

He said Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state also briefed the governors on the issue of forensic audit carried out on NNPC but which details would emerge at the next NEC meeting.

The governor stated that the meeting as usual was held to prepare for discussions that would take place at the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting.

The forum had earlier raised another committee to interface with the National Assembly on the best way to implement the creation of state and community policing being discussed across the country to curb crimes at the local levels.

(NAN)