The Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, has said that the state targets far above N100bn as internally generated revenue (IGR) this year.

Eaglesforesight🦅 recalled that the state had a decline in its projected IGR in 2020, due to the effect of COVID-19 pandemic.

Abiodun disclosed this on Friday at a special Iftar (breaking of fast) with members of the House of Representatives, the State House of Assembly, the State Executive Council and the Body of Permanent Secretaries, in Abeokuta.

The governor explained that his administration was fully committed to putting the state on strong financial and economic footing through its creative approach

Abiodun, while pointing out that the dip in the IGR of the state in 2020 was a result of the inability of the state to earn from the Pay As You Earn (PAYE), the tax incentives given to industries in the state, and the lack of revenue from the education sector, disclosed that his administration had raked in N21b in the first quarter of the year.

He hinted that state planned to rake in over a N30b in the second quarter.

“Our Internally Generated Revenue dipped in 2020 and there are some reasons for that – there was no Pay As You Earn (PAYE) for us during the COVID-19 period, we gave incentives to industries because they couldn’t work during that period and because we are the education capital of the country, a lot of our IGR was coming from the tertiary institutions and because there were no students in schools, the revenue did not come in.

“Let me tell you what the good news is, the good news is that first quarter of 2021, we already got N21b. Last year, we did N58b, so we’ve already got half of what we got last year in one quarter. This present quarter, we will do at least N30b and by the end of this year, by the grace of God, we will do over a N100b in Ogun State”, the governor stated.

Abiodun added that his administration discovered that Land Use Charge was not being paid in the state and inherited a database of 14,000 people from the previous administration.

He disclosed further that the discovery led his administration to put in place different mechanisms, which according to him, has helped the state to realise a database of Land Use Charge for over 1.5million people, noting “this will translate into a lot for our administration.”

“We are being creative, our Land Use Charge, nobody is paying. When I resumed office,we inherited a database of land use charge of 14,000 people in the database, we’ve put different things in place and today, we have a database of land use charge of over 1.5million people. 1.5million from 14,000 in two years, you can imagine what that will translate into,” he said.

The governor further disclosed that his administration would soon be launching Ogun State Land Administration and Management System {OLAS), saying the system would help residents of the state who had built on government properties to come and regularise their papers.

“We now have a system that we call OLAS, Ogun State Land Administration and Management System. We are still going to launch that and what is that system? That system using ICT, we are going to ensure that all those that have built, we are starting with government-owned properties alone, all those that have built on government properties will have to come and regularise their papers.