Bauchi IGR: USAID State2State Holds Dialogue Session

Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi

The Bauchi State Board of Internal Revenue Services (BIRS) with the support from USAID funded State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness (State2State) activity yesterday organised a quarterly review meeting on public-private internally generated revenue (IGR) dialogue session in a bid to enhance performance on revenue generation in the state.

Speaking at the commencement of the meeting held in Bauchi, the state Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development, Modibbo Abdulkadir Ahmed, represented by the Director-General, Bauchi State Debt Management Agency, Jibrin Abdullahi, commended USAID State2State for its efforts towards entrenching good governance in the state.

Abdulkadir, while describing the dialogue session as a good step towards assisting the state government to improve performance on IGR, said the government is ever ready for any partnership that would bring about progress and development to the state, especially on economic matters.

Also speaking, the Executive Chairman of the Bauchi State Board of Internal Revenue Services (BIRS), Mu’azu Usman, represented by the Director of Administration and Human Resource, Jibrin Adamu Aliyu, noted that the meeting is timely and has come at a better time as the board is always exploring avenues on how to improve its IGR.

 Usman expressed the hope that the outcome of the meeting would come up with innovative ways of advancing and improving revenue generation in the state.

In her welcome address, the USAID State2State Bauchi Team Lead, Rabi Ekele, represented by the Citizen Engagement and Capacity Building (CECB) Specialist, Habila Salem, described IGR as a core component critical to government operations.

Ekele said State2State is supporting the effort of the Bauchi State Government towards improving its IGR through facilitating a quarterly public-private dialogue session with relevant MDAs, business organisations, trade unions, CSOs, vulnerable groups and religious/community.

“USAID State2State is supporting this quarter’s public-private IGR dialogue, and we also planned to initiate the process of institutionalising such meetings aimed at enhancing IGR in Bauchi State,” Ekele said.