The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), has organised a three-day orientation exercise on revenue generation for the revenue officials in Zamfara State, designed to expose the revenue officials on the process of data collection and dismenation for the forthcoming review of the revenue allocation formula.
Alhaji Ibrahim Bako, RMAFC’s Commissioner in charge of Niger State, who spoke in Gusau on Friday, at the closing ceremony of the exercise, said they were in the state as part of a nationwide sensitisation programme initiated by the commission.
Bako said the commission had constituted six committees to facilitate smooth conduct of the exercise in the six geo political zones in the country.
He said his committee had so far visited Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbe States in the Northwest.
The RMAFC official noted that some of the challenges leading to the low revenue generation in the state could be attributed to factors not incorporated in the revenue formula such as registration of Almajiri (Qur’anic school) pupils into formal school enrollment,
Bako listed other factors to include non inclusion of natural resources which has not been captured in national revenue formular to give the state 13 per cent derivation, and high profile of tax defaulters for the Internal Revenue Generation (IGR).
In a remark, Yahaya Chado, the state’s Commissioner for Local Government and Community Development, commended the commission for organising the exercise as he said the exercise would avail the participants the opportunities to identify areas responsible for the low IGR and how to improve it.
He said the state government would leverage on the ideas and knowledge learnt from the exercise to boost its revenue base.
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