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Enugu State celebrated her 29th anniversary in the past week alongside others. Enugu was and remained in the news for both good and bad reasons. The bad reason being for the recent massacre of unarmed young men freely associating with one another by the DSS. The incident cast a dampener on the deserved celebrations.
Enugu is also in the news for several other positives. One of them is the reopening today of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport after one year of its shutdown. The Minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika and Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi should take a deserved bow for delivering on this project.
Read Also: Hadi Sirika Hints On Concession Of Enugu Airport
Apart from this, data from the National Bureau of Statistics says Enugu is the best-performing state economically in the South East and ranks fifth overall in Nigeria.
Enugu state also ranks best in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and this is a massive achievement because it is not an oil-producing state and it no longer has any major industrial outfits apart from the old ANAMMCO retooled by Frank Nneji’s Transit Support Services (TSS) Limited and the huge Nigerian Breweries plant at Ama. The agro-processing ventures such as AVOP, the cashew nuts factory at Oghe and several others lie moribund.
Economic Confidential, an intelligence publication, has also listed Enugu State as one of only six states that are economically viable in Nigeria. Others are Lagos, Ogun, Rivers, Kwara and Kaduna. Its Annual States Viability Index asserts that many states cannot survive without the federally collected revenue mostly from the oil sector. Collections only tell half of this story. Bayelsa State, which is one of the states that gets the most from federal allocations, is completely insolvent and has a terrible economic rating.
Many other states that should otherwise be ranking with the best as independent entities hold on tightly to their feeding bottles to receive milk from Abuja.
Economics is about data, but it is ultimately about people. Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi gets deserved plaudits in the state for economic management. A lot of people disagree with him on the relationship with the centre, alleging softness over Igbo interests. Still, on the direction of the resources of the state, he gets a big hurrah.
It starts with the treatment of human capital.
Government workers in Enugu State get their salaries on the 24th of every month. They have also under Ugwuanyi regularly received the 13th-month compensation. Regular and appropriate payment of workers is not only right but smart. The bureaucracy often makes a critical difference in a project and human management. The bureaucracy could be a clog or an enabler.
Prudence is Ugwuanyi’s watchword. He has carefully managed the lean resources of the state while pushing to enlarge the coast. He has kept borrowings low, unlike some states rushing to sign loans from China at every tiny opportunity.
Enugu State is like most states in Nigeria that boasts of several natural resources. They include coal, the mining of which from the 1920s earned its capital the monicker of Coal City, iron ore, limestone, fine clay, marble, and silica sand. Industries also include textile manufacturing, food processing, lumbering, soft drink bottling, brewing and furniture manufacturing.
The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission has mapped out several investment opportunities that exist in Enugu State which include Agribusiness, Light Manufacturing, Healthcare, Tourism, Energy, and Mining.
Enugu State has also led the states of the South East in Foreign Direct Investment as well as in Internally Generated Revenue over the last four years. Enugu State’s IGR grew from ₦14.2bn in 2016 to ₦31.7bn at the end of 2019. It was not a straight upward curve, though. While it rose to ₦22b in 2017, it declined by one per cent to ₦21b in 2018 and then grew majestically to ₦31.7b in 2019.
Enugu state was able to achieve this by using automation of many systems and processes which was a significant contributor. Other methods included deployment and tinkering with the law, enforcement, communication, information and education of citizens, and proper structures in the Government.
Automation of revenue collection in Enugu has widened the tax net while minimising Tax leakages. In return, officials have reported an increase in voluntary tax compliance by the large numbers of citizens in the unorganised private sector. It then streamlined many taxes, bringing all land-based taxes by the state and local governments into the single Enugu State Land Use Charge Amendment Law. This Automation is central and has featured in the Pay Direct System by which all revenue goes directly to the banks.
Enugu State also claims that it grew IGR without increasing taxes. Instead, it expanded the tax net by bringing in more people. Ugwuanyi also played smart. He waived the payment of income taxes for the most disadvantaged groups -petty traders, artisans, Keke/Okada riders, and similar vocations. The state also granted huge Covid-19 tax reliefs to citizens as well.
The Enugu State IGR story speaks to possibilities and what other states can do with proper deployment of human capital. Enugu and Nsukka are becoming notable players in the fast-evolving Nigerian digital start-up ecosystem and it is would be worthwhile if other states would emulate their methods and fall in line.
Governors Ikpeazu, Uzodinma and Obiano should come, and learn from the diligent and focused Governor Ugwuanyi so that they can actually come out of their cluelessness and stop their show of abysmal failures.
THE EASTERN UPDATES
