The Chairman of Akwa Ibom Internal Revenue Service (AKIRS), Mr. Okon Okon, has declared that tax processes will be digitised starting from the 2025 fiscal year.
He made this announcement during a press briefing at the NUJ Press Centre on Sunday, November 17, 2024.
In his words, “We are pleased to inform our public that we will be speeding up our digitalisation program next year by further expanding the automation of our processes and deepening our data-driven initiatives.
“This is to significantly improve our operational efficiency and increase the state’s IGR without increasing any tax rate.
“We are confident that without increasing any tax rate, the IGR of our state would be improved via the application of technology, an increased tax awareness campaign, and the expansion of the tax net to capture tax evaders.”
The chairman emphasised that the board’s focus for the next fiscal year would be transforming processes from semi-manual to fully automated. “We intend to achieve end-to-end automation of all our tax processes.”
Regarding Akwa Ibom State’s IGR performance, the AKIRS boss highlighted that the state ranked 10th in Nigeria for internally generated revenue (IGR) performance in 2023.
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“The state’s IGR rose from N34.75 billion in 2022 to N43.18 billion in 2023, as indicated in the figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics and Joint Tax Board, the apex body for tax authorities and final authority for reporting tax revenues in Nigeria.
“It is on record that Akwa Ibom State ranked among the top 10 states in Nigeria for Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) performance in 2023, coming 4th among the nine states of the Niger Delta in the recently released ranking published by the NBS.
“Our IGR trend shows significant and steady growth, with about 170 percent increase over the past six years, rising from N15.96 billion in 2017 to N43.18 billion in 2023,” Okon said.
He noted that the 2024 IGR is impressive and likely to sustain the state for another year due to the board’s strategic initiatives and engagement with stakeholders.
Okon applauded Governor Umo Eno for the IGR’s impressive performance while also commending the board’s hard work.
“This significant growth is attributed to the performance of Governor Umo Eno in creating an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.
“Its success is also attributed to the improvement of corporate governance and operation processes by the board.”
