By Babalola Gafar
The exercise, conducted alongside the council’s management team, was aimed at identifying revenue leakages and exploring opportunities to maximize the council’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) without imposing additional burdens on residents.
During the tour, the team inspected several revenue sources, including moribund local government facilities, landed properties, and key commercial hubs such as Lafenwa Market, Lafenwa Abattoir, Olomore Shopping Complex, Lepa colouring Elega, and over 100 hectares of land at Sabo.
Addressing newsmen after the tour, Hon. Lanre Oyegbola-Sodipo emphasized the need for a strategic approach to revenue generation.
“We need to improve our IGR, there's no way we would be able to meet developmental work if we have to sit on where the IGR is.”
He clarified that the council’s plan is not to increase levies or taxes on citizens but to optimize existing revenue points.
“The first approach to increasing revenue is to ensure we are fully optimizing our revenue points. That’s what we’ve been doing in the last couple of weeks. Hence, we created this revenue monitoring team,” he explained.
According to the chairman, the council has so far identified and established about 60 revenue points across Abeokuta North Local Government.
He assured that the next step is to strengthen the process of revenue collection and ensure sustainable revenue assurance.
“The very first approach to every process in increasing revenue, is to first of all identify and be sure that you are fully optimizing your revenue point, that's what we have been doing in the last couple of weeks. Hence we've created this revenue monitoring team.
“I can say to you confidently that as of today we have established up to about 60 revenue point in Abeokuta North.
“The next thing is to ensure that we can significantly have revenue assurance.”
