joshuaChanging face of tax administration in Kogi State, under Alhaji Sule Salihu Enehe, the Executive Chairman of KGIRS.
–The tax administrator with a Midas touch.
He is leveraging on cutting edge technology and human capital development to deepen effective and efficient revenue generation with a human face,to boost IGR performance.
By Otori Ozigi Samuel Ochetengwun.
The story of tax administration in Kogi State is a mixed bag of IGR performance in the last couple of years now.
Under previous administrations of former governors Alhaji Ibrahim Idris and Capt.Idris Ichalla Wada, the trends in IGR performance was nothing to write home about.
It was a paltry and miserable one in the neighbourhood of 250 and 300 million naira as posted monthly by the defunct board of internal revenue service.
The coming onboard of the immediate past governor of kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello in 2016 marked a water shed and a turning point in remarkable success story of KGIRS, started by the former Executive Chairman of the service, Senator Yakubu Oseni.
He is credited to have generated over N1.3B monthly IGR in his first month in office, until he stepped aside to contest for the Senatorial seat of kogi central in 2019 general elections.
The man who took over from him,Mr Nda Aliu was able to maintain the tempo of IGR performance and even improved on it as he was posting over N1.5B monthly averagely.
He, however,ran into troubled water and was removed from office for alleged financial infraction .
The baton of leadership was passed on to Alhaji Yusuf Abubakar, who is credited to have plunged the IGR performance to a new low in the region of 700 million naira and was promptly removed from office.
It was against this background, therefore, that the former governor of kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello began a headhunting exercise for a competent, capable and experienced professional to fill the vacant position of chairmanship of the service.
The lot now fell on Alhaji Sule Salihu Enehe,a chartered accountant, who was the director tax audit and compliance with the service.
His appointment in November 2021, was applauded by stakeholders and the workforce who posited that he is a round peg in a round hole.
Since the first month in office, Alhaji Sule Salihu Enehe was able to return the service to it’s remarkable performing days of monthly IGR performance in the neighbourhood of between N1.5B and N2B
The service generated over N18B in 2022, N23B in 2023 and over N19B as at September 2024.
This remarkable success story is attributed to the blockage of leakages, unwavering support from the former governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello,the unalloyed support of the incumbent governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Ododo Ahmed Usman and the dedication to duty and high productivity of the workforce.
On the whole, better days are ahead as the service is being repositioned to entrench efficient and effective service delivery.in the years ahead.
