Abeokuta North Local Government has embarked on a comprehensive revenue reform aimed at boosting its financial base and ensuring accountability.
The Executive chairman of the local government Hon. Lanre Oyegbola-Sodipo, announced this during a press conference held at the council secretariat on Monday.
While addressing the press, the chairman said upon assuming office, his administration discovered that the revenue base of the local government was significantly low and mismanaged.
To address this, he canceled all previous revenue collection contracts and set up a Revenue Monitoring Team (RMT), led by the Vice Chairman, Hon. Taiyelolu Egbeyemi.
“As of today, we have identified 67 revenue points within the local government, compared to the 10 or 15 revenue points we met on the ground,” Oyegbola-Sodipo revealed.
“We have deployed able and committed young men to monitor revenue collection, and we are now working towards scaling up our revenue drive across all identified points.”
The Chairman added that the local government is also introducing a digital revenue collection system to enhance efficiency and transparency adding that the system will officially commence on Wednesday in which all levies and taxes are paid digitally.
Providing an example of how this will work, the chairman explained that petrol stations in the local government were previously charged a flat rate, regardless of the number of pumps they had.
This, he noted, was unfair. “We have now introduced a pump-based levy system to ensure fairness. Starting Wednesday, we will begin capturing and onboarding all petrol stations into the digital system,” he said.
The chairman also said the new system will be extended to markets, with market women being properly identified and grouped into clusters.
Hon. Lanre Oyegbola Sodipo also highlighted plans to maximize local government assets, citing Ori-Omi, a local venue previously rented out for as low as ₦90,000 per event.
He described this as a gross abuse of government property and announced an immediate review of its management to increase revenue generation.
Furthermore, a Skills and Enterprise Development Center is being established within the council secretariat to support young entrepreneurs.
According to Oyegbola-Sodipo, a team of seven young professionals has worked for nearly nine weeks to develop a blueprint for the center.
“The center will provide a platform for young people to develop their innovations and grow their businesses,” he said.
Hon. Oyegbola-Sodipo reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to ensuring a more transparent, accountable, and efficient local government.
His words” if you are unable to measure anything, then you’ll be unable to manage it, whatever you can’t measure, you cannot manage.
“Whatever you cannot inspect don’t expect, it is on this principle that we charge ourselves that we need to do a complete overhaul the process, the system, the architecture that drives our revenue in the local government.”
The chairman assured residents that these reforms will not only boost internally generated revenue (IGR) but also improve service delivery and attract more development projects to the local government.
