NBS: Enugu records lowest tax Revenue-to-IGR ratio

…Abia, FCT, Bayelsa top tax-heavy IGR states Enugu State recorded the lowest tax revenue-to-Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) ratio in 2025, StatiSense has said, quoting figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). According to statistics published on StatiSense’s verified X handle, only N51.52 billion, or 12.67 per cent of the N406.7 billion in IGR generated by Enugu State in 2025, came from tax revenues, while the rest came from non-tax revenues.

Recall that the NBS had earlier in the year rated Enugu State as number one in IGR growth among the 36 states and the FCT, coming only behind Lagos and Rivers States, in that order. However, in terms of the tax component of IGR, the state recorded the lowest tax-to-IGR ratio, while Abia State led with 100 per cent of its N70.41 billion IGR in 2025 coming from taxes.

Abia was followed by the FCT, which had 100 per cent of its N356.34 billion 2025 IGR coming from tax revenues. Bayelsa (99.39 per cent), Rivers (96.72 per cent) and Sokoto (92.44 per cent) make up the top five tax-dependent states for IGR. But joining Governor Peter Mbah’s Enugu on the list of states with the least tax dependence for IGR are Kwara (38.42 per cent), Katsina (39.93 per cent), Osun (41.53 per cent) and Ogun (44.10 per cent).

At a recent town hall in Enugu, televised live by some national television stations, Governor Peter Mbah had dismissed the narrative that his administration was overtaxing the people, noting that it was being fuelled by the opposition and beneficiaries of the corruption and sharp practices that prevailed in the revenue collection system until his administration came on board and implemented reforms, introducing technology in the process to plug revenue leakages.

Mbah also maintained that, contrary to perception, the surge in the state’s revenue was driven by innovation and economic diversification under his administration, which had expanded revenue sources. He also reminded the audience that taxation was on the Exclusive Legislative List of the Constitution; hence, no state could legislate to increase or lower any form of tax, be it Personal Income Tax, Company Income Tax, Value Added Tax, Withholding Tax, among others.

He said his administration had widened the tax net to bring in more people who had never paid tax, but had never increased taxes. “This is one falsehood that has been so peddled that it’s even beginning to take a semblance of a truth. Meanwhile, overtaxation does not exist, and I think those who think we may be taxing more are essentially looking at the sort of growth we have recorded in our IGR.

“Because they couldn’t have imagined such growth happening within the period it happened, they felt perhaps the only justification is that we have burdened the people of Enugu to realise that. But that’s far from the truth. “So, what did we do to grow our IGR? First of all, we plugged all the leakages. We ensured that nobody makes payments in cash on behalf of the state government.

“But, importantly, we have so far activated a whole lot of our dormant assets. We now earn quite a lot from those assets, and we built new ones,” he stated. He named the Hotel Presidential, Enugu United Palm Products Limited, Nigergas, Nike Lake, the International Conference Centre, among other moribund assets his administration recovered, completed or resuscitated, then optimised and monetised.

The Governor also named new revenue-yielding assets like Enugu Air, saying tax revenues constituted a marginal component of the state’s IGR. He, however, said that his administration expected the tax component to grow with time as more economic activities occurred in the state. Mbah added that most people also mistake payments for services that government renders, such as the issue of C-of-O, refuse disposal by the Enugu State Waste Management Authority (ESWAMA) for taxes, noting that his administration had also consolidated most of the services and costs.

“How much did we say they should pay? N36,000 annually for businesses. And that includes business premises and other rates and services. So, it’s N100 per day. “We also had the complaints about people going to the market, I’m sure maybe from the local governments, to collect money. I made an announcement to stop that; that nobody should collect N100 or N200 from our market women,” he had explained.