By Reuben Onyishi (Ugoachateberu) basetvreport@gmail.com
Since 29th May 2023, when Peter Ndubuisi Mbah became the governor of Enugu State, he has taken deliberate actions targeting the stupendous improvement of the state’s economy. The idea is to rev up the GDP of the state to a whooping sum of &30 billion, make Enugu the first choice of investment destination, tourism and living, and then alleviate poverty by reducing the state’s poverty headcount index to zero per cent level. These have been the three cardinal pillars of the Mbah administration, the three pillars of hope to which the administration looks up. It appears that these targets are being met as the administration takes giant strides in infrastructural development and social service deliverables.
The building of infrastructure partly targets ease of doing business. The amenities apart, from the impacts on the standard of living of the Enugu people, are a bait to investors as the cost of business is reduced. Creating access routes for businesses through road infrastructure, liberalising the electricity market by bringing investors into the electricity value chain, opening up the aviation sector through Enugu Air and the operationalisation of the international and cargo wings of Akanu Ibiam International Airport make Enugu a regional aviation hub, building the Enugu 5-star hotel thereby linking aviation to hospitality, the construction of the transport terminals in strategic locations in Enugu thereby enhancing multimodal transport system, the elevation of Enugu to a medical tourism hub through the construction of Enugu International Hospital, the making of Enugu the regional conferencing centre by the construction of the International Conference Centre, the ongoing construction of New Enugu Smart City that would rank among any known city in the world, with its potential to attract multinational investors in the state, are a few of what the governor is doing to make Enugu the first choice of investment destination. This pillar is the driver of the other two pillars, for once investors flock into the state as they are already doing, the impact on the GDP of the state would be immense and once the GDP improves, it also will impact on poverty reduction.
Of interest to this piece is what Mbah has done in the area of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). Prior to Mbah coming on board, the state’s IGR per annum as of 2022 was N28.7 billion, ranking 14th highest in the country. This figure is an increase in the state’s 2021 IGR of N24.3 billion, which was the 15th highest nationally, and this is the information from the National Bureau of Statistics. Mbah came in the middle of 2023, and as of December 2023, the IGR rose to N33.86 billion. This figure placed the state as the second-highest IGR in the South-East region for that year, behind Anambra State. Nationally, the state ranked 12th among all states in the nation in the IGR rating.
In 2024, when the Mbah administration fully sat in for governance, Mbah astronomically drove the state’s IGR to a whooping sum of N180.5 billion, making Enugu the highest in the South East and the 5th in the whole nation. What Mbah did was drive the IGR to 433 per cent incremental value. Enugu became the 5th best performing state in IGR nationwide, after Lagos, Rivers, FCT, and Ogun. It also led to the ranking for IGR growth momentum (Index A1).This means that Enugu State is among the few states that have generated more than enough internal revenue to cover its operating expenses, the implication of which is the attainment of fiscal independence. This humongous increase is attributed to the expansion of tax net, the introduction of e-ticketing in revenue collection for the informal sector, digitalisation of tax and fees collection and other institutional reforms such as the revamping of high revenue-yielding moribund assets.
What this means is that Mbah has stabilised the economy of the state, placing it on auto-cruise. The IGR is also consolidated in 2025, meaning the 2024 figure could be sustained or surpassed. Mbah made it clear that FAAC receipts can not scratch the surface of his financial objectives and had recommended FAAC for savings for posterity. Looking at the Enugu budget of 2025, IGR is estimated at N500 billion. So, the 2024 IGR is morning on a creation day. This is not ordinary. It takes extraordinary dimension of coordination and visionary leadership to wrought this great deed. The governor is financially intelligent and has this complex-seeing capacity to rake in funds where they seemingly do not exist. He is very creative and cerebral, and this is accentuated by his entrepreneurial background and expertise in financial matters.
It would appear that the opposition would resort to claims of overtaxation over these lofty achievements of the Mbah administration. The fact is that the people are not overtaxed. Prior to now, tax evasion was all the rage. The digitalisation of the tax process in the state has made it impossible for anyone to evade tax, and naturally, the culprits are fuming. The Mbah administration has not introduced any new tax nor increased the tax rate. All taxes and fees are statutory, meaning they had been in place and backed by law, even before Mbah came in as the governor. Thinking and creativity make the difference. Mbah thinks, and the thinking has paid off in the economic stability of Enugu State. Who would have thought that a non-oil producing state branded a civil service state could wrought this quantum leap in internal revenue mobilisation and rank among the fiscally independent states in Nigeria? Only vision and creativity can tell.