Receives Excellence IGR Award for fastest-growing IGR
By Peter Duru – Makurdi
The Executive Chairman of Benue Internal Revenue Service, BIRS, Mr. Andrew Ayabam has disclosed that the COVID-19 pandemic had adversely affected the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, the profile of the state.
He said despite the challenge, the state had been able to generate sixty percent of its targeted revenue when compared to what was generated within the same period last year.
Mr. Ayabam who made this known while receiving the Excellence IGR Award for Benue state as one of the 12 states in the country with the fastest-growing IGR in 2019 dedicated the award to Governor Samuel Ortom stressing that it was indicative of the transparent manner the Governor was handling the finances and economy of the state.
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According to him, “the impact of the pandemic started being felt from April when businesses started shutting down here and we started recording a drop in our revenue though it was a global experience.
“But year on year at least we were able to record up to sixty percent of what we got last year. Though we did not do too badly, we noticed the negative impact. We are currently on recovery mode and it is showing in our numbers. At least August was better than July.”
Earlier the Chairman/Publisher of Alford Conferences, Mr. Frederick Apeji said Benue emerged recipient of the award after placing fourth among the 12 states with the fastest-growing Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, profile in the country coming behind Yobe, Zamfara, and Osun states.
According to him, from the statistics made available by the National Bureau of Statistics, Benue recorded an unprecedented 59.16 percent growth in its IGR in 2019 which indicated the tremendous work the state was doing through the Chairman and Staff of BIRS.
