The Minister of Police Affairs, Alhaji Muhammad Dingyadi, has called on stakeholders in the ministry to step up efforts to improve internally generated revenue and block leakages, losses and wastages.
Dingyadi made the call on Monday in Abuja at the opening of a two-day stakeholders’ conference on internally generated revenue organised by the ministry.
The minister, represented by Mr Temitope Fashedemi, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, said the call was in view of the global impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the conference was to discus and generate ideas for improved revenue generation in the ministry.
“I am sure that you will all agree that, given our current realities, there is no better time than now to deliberate on our revenue management system.
“Publicly available indices show that revenue inflows from all major sources into the Nigerian economy have remained low in the past few years.
“This is not restricted to Nigeria as the global economy is yet to fully recover from the devastating effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic,” he said.
According to him, the far reaching negative impact of the pandemic has made the Federal Government to embark on unprecedented and unplanned expenditure.
He said the pandemic had caused government to deploy huge sums for upgrading and building new laboratories and isolation centers, as well as equipping them with all requisite materials.
“The Federal Government has also spent extra-budgetary sums for importation of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), Ventilators, and Vaccines, leading to the review of the national budget to accommodate these massive outflows.
“The lockdowns that were imposed across the country for months meant a shut-down of economic activities and inevitably resulted in general down-turn of the economy.
“There is no gainsaying the fact that Nigeria’s main source of FOREX and funding of the national budget remains crude oil export, whose price is determined by externalities outside our control.
“The world-wide lockdown due to the ravaging pandemic drastically reduced the global demand for oil and its attendant effect on our economy cannot be over emphasized,” he said.
Dingyadi said revenue generation was a tool for government to perform its role of improving the lives of the citizens.
He said the conference was timely and participants should view it with all seriousness and come up with strategies to improve internally generated revenue.
The minister said the focus should be on leveraging the fast pace of changing technologies, accounting and reporting of revenue to block leakages, losses and wastages.
