By Ibiyemi Mathew
Gov. Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State says the State Government realises about N3.3 billion as internally generated revenue every month.
Akeredolu made this known on Thursday in Akure at the closing ceremony of a training for staff of the State Internal Revenue Service (ODIRS) on understanding principle of international taxation by the London Academy Business School.
Represented by the Head of Service (HoS), Pastor Kayode Ogundele, the Governor said his administration placed special emphasis on public service advancement and improvement in the quality of staff, their training and promotions.
“I wish to state here, based on the information I received and approval given so far, that over 450 staff of this agency have participated in not less than four standard trainings with one specialised training in their various areas since 2021.
“Since the beginning of my administration, I have placed a special emphasis on public service advancement and improvement in the quality of staff and their training and promotions.
“It gladdens my heart that we have improved our IGR systematically from the N700 million per month in 2017, when we came on board to an average of N3.3 billion per month in 2023,” he said
The Governor appreciated the team from the London Academy Business School for sharing their knowledge and experience on international taxation with the trainees.
Earlier, the Executive Chairman of ODIRS, Mr Tolu Adegbie, appreciated the Governor for the trust, believe and regular training opportunities provided for the service.
Adegbie said the training and retraining of staff had been the springing board for better and improved performance for the service in revenue generation.
“We know that training them(staff) will impact on our revenue growth, so for this year, we decided that we should do something extraordinary.
“We were asked to go to London two years ago, with all the chairmen of International Revenue Service all over the country and the Chairman of the FIRS and we attended this same course.
“When we came back, we decided to approach Mr Governor that instead of Chairman and Director going for this training in London, why can’t we train the rest of our staff and he bought the idea and said, well, if the trainers can come to Nigeria, why not?
“I am happy to inform you that the N3billion monthly IGR we promised Mr Governor to generate on monthly basis, we’ve been able to achieve it,” Adegbie added.