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Group photograph of the participants at the dialogue meeting
By Akanji Alowolodo, Bauchi
Bauchi State Government has expressed that it is ever ready for any partnership that will bring about progress and development to the State.
The expression was made by the State Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Umar Ahmed Modibbo in a short remarks at the commencement of a one day meeting held at the Conference Hall of Hazibal Suites, Bauchi.
Represented by the Director General, Bauchi Debt Management Agency, Jibrin Abdullahi, the Commissioner commended USAID State2State for the efforts towards entrenching good governance in Bauchi State.
While calling on the participants to contribute their input at the dialogue session, Umar Modiddo assured that government will continue to partner with all relevant international agencies in order to provide effective services delivery to the people.
The meeting was organized towards enhancing performance on revenue generation in Bauchi State by the State Board of Internal Revenue Services (BIRS) with support from USAID funded State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness (State2State) Activity.
It was a quarterly review meeting on public-private internally generated revenue (IGR) dialogue session.
Also speaking, the Executive Chairman of the Bauchi State Board of Internal Revenue Service (BIRS), Alhaji Mu’azu Usman, represented by the Director Administration and Human Resource, Jibrin Adamu Aliyu, described the meeting as imperative and timely.
He said that the Board is always exploring avenues on how to improve its IGR and that the meeting could not have come at a better time.
The BIRS Chairman also expressed his hope that the outcome of the meeting would come up with innovative ways of improving revenue in the state.
Earlier in her welcome address, USAID State2State Bauchi Team Lead, Rabi Ekele described IGR as a core public financial management component that is critical Government Operations.
Represented by the Citizen Engagement and Capacity Building (CECB) Specialist, Habila Salem, Rabi Ekele said that State2State is supporting the efforts of the Bauchi State Government towards improving its IGR through facilitating a quarterly public-private dialogue session with relevant MDAs, business organizations, trade unions, CSOs, vulnerable groups and religious/community.
“USAID State2State is supporting this quarter’s public-private IGR dialogue and we also plan to initiate the process of institutionalizing such meetings aimed at enhancing IGR in Bauchi State”, Rabi Ekele said.
During the meeting, participants were taken through topics that included roles of stakeholders in state IGR process, review of the state IGR progress et al.
There were group exercises, plenary discussions, questions and answers sessions as well as comments and observations based on presentations made.
