By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
Towards improved revenue generation in Bauchi State, the State Board of Internal Revenue Services (BIRS), with support from the USAID funded State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness (State2State) Activity have organised its quarterly review meeting on public-private internally generated revenue (IGR) dialogue session.
In short remark before the commencement of the meeting held on Tuesday 11th October, 2022, at the Conference Hall of Hazibal Hotel Bauchi, State commissioner of finance, Alhaji Umar Ahmed Modibbo , represented by the Director General, Bauchi Debt Management Agency, Jibrin Abdullahi commended USAID State2State for their efforts towards entrenching good governance in Bauchi State.

While calling on the participants to contribute their input at the dialogue session, Modiddo said that the State government is ever ready for partnership that would bring about progress and development to the State.
Also speaking, the Executive Chairman of the 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 the board is always exploring avenues on how to improve its IGR and that the meeting could not have come at a better time. He also expressed his hope that the outcome of the meeting would come up with innovative ways of improving revenue generation 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 to Government Operations.
Represented by the citizen engagement and capacity building (CECB) specialist, Habila Salem, Ekele said State2State is supporting the effort 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”, Ekele said.
During the meeting, participants were taken through topics that includes: roles of stakeholders in state IGR process, review of the state IGR progress and other related topics. There were also group exercises, plenary discussions, questions and answers sessions, as well as comments and observations based on presentations made.
Our correspondent reports that, next steps and plan for the next review meeting are some of the expected outcomes of the dialogue session.