By joshua Enehe Has Rebuilt Trust: How Unassuming KGIRS Chairman Digitized Collections, Ended Multiple Taxation, Opened The Books To Deliver ₦3.5bn Monthly.
By Abu Micheal.
There are leaders whose performance refuses to hide under a bushel. For Dr. Sule Salihu Enehe, Executive Chairman of the Kogi State Internal Revenue Service, KGIRS, that leader is him.
One thing you cannot take from Enehe is transparency, and that simple lifestyle of living makes many wonder if the unassuming, smallish-framed Chairman is truly the man behind the quantum leap Kogi State has made in revenue generation.
His appointment came at a time government was searching for a competent, knowledgeable and experienced hand to turn around dwindling fortunes at KGIRS.
Confirmed after serving as Director of Tax Audit and Compliance, Enehe walked into a Service struggling at ₦750 million monthly IGR – a figure stakeholders called abysmal and out of tune with Kogi’s potential.
Previous Management under Alhaji Yahaya Bello had briefly pushed revenue to between ₦1b and ₦1.3b monthly before it nosedived. Today, that story has changed.
Under Enehe, KGIRS has been repositioned for optimal performance and taxpayer compliance. Collections rose from ₦750m monthly to an unprecedented ₦3.5bn monthly. In his first year ending December 2022, the Service posted over ₦18b, then surpassed the ₦23b target set for 2023. For 2026, he has his sights on the ₦50b target set by the state government, and stakeholders say the target is realistic and doable given the unwavering commitment of management and staff.
Enehe has rebuilt trust by digitizing collections, ending multiple taxation, and opening KGIRS books to public scrutiny. He introduced e-taxation, online payment portals, and a centralized revenue management system that cut leakages and reduced human contact. Data-driven enforcement now targets underperforming sectors instead of blanket harassment. Most critically, he ensured KGIRS operates strictly under the Kogi State Harmonization Law, with all revenue accounts maintained and controlled by the Accountant General. Neither the Chairman nor management operates separate accounts, and monthly revenue figures are published – an open-ledger approach rare among state IRSs.
That transparency is why attempts to smear his name have failed. Many who tried to defraud the system never went free because anti-corruption measures and zero tolerance for indiscipline put them under scrutiny. Staff found culpable of printing fake receipts have been dismissed through a disciplinary committee headed by Legal Services, proving no one is above the law.
Like a Trojan horse, Enehe rises above challenges – unruffled, focused, and trudging on despite smear campaigns from faceless writers. His reputation, built over three decades as a chartered accountant turned tax administrator, remains intact.
Beyond figures, Enehe brought a human face to revenue collection. Taxpayers in Kogi now file without prompting, thanks to statewide sensitization campaigns in markets, schools and media that reframed tax as civic duty, not burden.
A taxpayer complaints desk and hotline resolve disputes without intimidation, while QR-coded receipts and reduced paperwork make compliance easy.
Inside Revenue House, Lokoja, the workforce has been transformed. Over 200 staff have been trained and retrained locally and externally on tax laws, customs relations, ethics and mindset reorientation. Promotions are now merit-based after training, not discretion. Welfare has been enhanced with timely allowances, health insurance support, and replacement of dilapidated equipment – computers, chairs, ACs – across area offices.
The Chairman is known for unannounced visits to area offices, talking directly to frontline staff. Staff call him “accessible chairman.”
The jump from ₦750m to ₦3.5bn monthly is not just statistics. It funds road repairs, primary healthcare upgrades, and salary payments without borrowing. As Nelson Mandela said, “a good head and a good heart are always a great combination” – a truism reflected in Enehe’s leadership. He lives within his means, has no controversial mansions or fleet of exotic cars, and operates within his income.
Alhaji Sule Salihu Enehe is a transformational, results-driven and integrity-driven public servant. A reform-minded, data-driven revenue mobilizer who turned KGIRS into a model of efficiency. He changed the narrative, put systems over discretion, and proved that transparency and performance can coexist.
With Enehe in the saddle, better days are ahead for KGIRS. He is indeed the uncommon tax administrator with the Midas touch, and Kogi citizens now have a wonderful story to tell.
To this end, it is without mincing words that no amount of smear campaigns of calumny would stain his good name and reputation built over three decades as a professional.
For those who throw stones and live in glass Houses, it is fair to say that when the long arms of the law catches up with them, there will be no “abeg” as is usually said in pidgin palance because ignorance of the law is not an excuse, particularly when rare men moulded in transparent service like Alhaji Sule Enehe are about to be tainted negatively.
For the KGIRS Chairman. The time to sustain your trajectory that is making mere men to rubbish your good works remains now. Move on, for your works are visible and verifiable.
Abu Micheal, Journalist, Publisher, Member ANIPR, MNIM, Editorial Board Member, Guild of Interfaith Media Practitioners Nigeria, MCIA