Gov. Isa Yuguda of Bauchi on Friday called on local government councils in the country to source for other means of generating internal revenues.
He advised them to depend less on federal grants.
Speaking in Bauchi at the closing ceremony of a workshop on enhancement of internally generated revenue organised for local government caretaker committee chairmen, the governor said that the state’s revenue was dwindling.
Represented by the Commissioner for Lands and Housing, Alhaji Aminu Hammayo, the governor urged the administrators to assist government in its economic transformation and development of the state.
“About 95 per cent of the state’s revenue comes from the federal government grants; therefore there is a need to explore more avenues to generate revenue from within,” he said.
He said that without sound revenue base, it might be difficult for things to evolve as expected in the economic development and transformation of the state.
Alhaji Abubakar Faggo, the state Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, said that internal revenue generation and management at local government council level had been a knotty issue since the return to democracy.
He said that the councils were over dependent on federal statutory allocations for sustenance and advised participants to use the opportunity to work out measures to boost internal revenue.
He said that the objectives of the workshop included the enhancement of sources of internal revenue generation, removing impediments and leakages to revenue generation and wealth creation at the local levels.
Others goals, he said, were collaboration between the state and local governments in internally generated revenue and public–private partnerships as an alternative option in revenue generation.
Faggo called on participants to rededicate themselves to efficient service delivery in revenue generation.
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