The Niger Government on Friday said it has taken measures to eliminate members of the Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) residing in some communities in the state.
Alhaji Ahmed Matane, Secretary to the State Government (SSG), revealed this to newsmen shortly after the screening exercise of the 2022 budget proposal of his office at the State House of Assembly in Minna.
He said security agencies are working seriously to eliminate the sects who had taken over some communities in Shiroro and Borgu forests under the National Park Service around Babana area, sharing border with Benin Republic.
“Government has taken appropriate measures to eliminate them from those locations, security agencies have been doing a lot of operations in those areas,” he said.
On improving the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), the SSG said the State Government has developed a framework for increasing IGR, putting the right structure in place to enhance revenue.
He added that part of the efforts is also the appointment of a new chairman for the board of revenue service and the commencement of the implementation of the harmonised IGR law.
“We are also doing monthly and quarterly reviews of all revenue agencies to meet and account for what they are supposed to generate, based on the 2022 budget.
“With all these mechanisms in place, we should be hitting N1 billion per month and that is our target,” he said.
Mr Abdullahi Gbara, Chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, while screening the office of the SSG, charged the State Government to improve on its monthly IGR.
He said the N700 million being generated every month is not adequate to address challenges of the state and urged government to make its printing press and other abandoned revenue-generation assets functional.
The lawmakers noted that the printing press and those abandoned assets of the state government were capable of generating huge revenue for the state. – NAN.
