Fall In Oil Prices: Minister Tips IGR As Key To Boost Economy

The minister made the remarks on Tuesday in Abuja while declaring open a 3 day stakeholders’ conference on ‘Improving Federal Government Internally Generated Revenue (IGR): Nigeria Police Services in Focus’, organized by the ministry of Police Affairs.

Adesiyan lamented that the situation has become worrisome that even the economic giants of the world which had hitherto won the admiration of the developing nations in the past by the stability of their economies, are now striving for sustainability on the economic stage.

“The current global economic trend at both macro and micro levels shows a consistent downward trend of revenues accruing to government coffers. This has made many nations to look inwards on how to improve and maximize opportunities available for revenue generation. Our country, Nigeria, is not left out in the global struggle for economic stability.

“This is especially the case given that earnings from crude oil which had been the major source of the nation’s revenue is suffering from challenges such as declining production, crude oil theft and price instability in the international market”, he said.

He added that one of the far reaching measures taken to rescue the economy was the creation of national awareness on the need for diversification of the nation’s revenue generation base from oil to other potential sources of revenue generation, saying that, “this calls for every sector of the economy to search inward with a view to identifying and harnessing various ways of boosting our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

“The Ministry of Police Affairs has been making stringent efforts over the years with due collaboration with the Nigeria Police to boost the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the Federal Government in spite of the current national security challenges. It may suffice to mention that the IGR from the Nigeria Police Force Services comes from police escort and special duties, private guards certificate fees/Bank guards, sales and stores, arms and ammunition licenses among others.”

Adesiyan, therefore, said that the stakeholders’ conference was one of the efforts put in place by the ministry to create a forum for all relevant stakeholders to brainstorm on how to enhance the IGR profile of the Nigeria Police with a view to coming up with ways and means of getting full value for Police services in the country through improved IGR.