The Edo Internal Revenue Service (EIRS) says it recorded N67.29 billion as internally generated revenue (IGR) for the state between January and September.

This is contained in a statement on Monday in Benin by Courage Egboigbe, head, corporate communications, EIRS.

Mr Egboigbe said that John Inegbedion, chairman, Task force on IGR, EIRS, presented the statistics during the service’s third quarterly performance review meeting in Benin.

Mr Inegbedion said that the N67.29 billion recorded exceeded the N55.64 billion year-to-date IGR budget of 2024.

According to him, with an average of N7 billion monthly, we project that the revenue service will close the 2024 IGR collection year with N85 billion.

He explained that at the inception of the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration almost eight years ago, the IGR collection stood at N23.64 billion.

“The growth recorded by this administration in the last eight years is N62 billion, indicating a growth rate of 370 per cent.

”That is if we subtract N23 billion at the inception of the administration from the N85 billion projected at the end of the administration.

“With the established trend, growth rate and financial stability experienced in Edo, the 2025 IGR budget projection is expected to be between N110 billion and N120 billion.

“This will usher Edo into the N100 billion IGR group of states,” he said.

He added that Edo’s IGR as a percentage of the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) receipt had increased from between 20 and 25 per cent to 50 per cent.

”The economic policies and investment drive of the governor have significantly impacted the economic growth and prosperity of the state, as evidenced by this remarkable growth in IGR,” he said.

He also said that the deployment of technology in EIRS had tremendously improved the revenue collections, assessment, transparency and accountability of the service.

(NAN)