Gombe

File photo: Gombe State Map

The Gombe State Internal Revenue Service has generated over N20.7 billion in revenue in the first six months of 2026, as the agency targets about N39bn by the end of the year.

The service’s Chairman, Aisha Adamu, disclosed this on Thursday while briefing journalists on the activities and achievements of the agency between January and June 2026.

Adamu said the revenue service had continued to record year-on-year growth in internally generated revenue, attributing the development to improved tax administration, staff training, collaboration with relevant stakeholders and increased compliance by taxpayers.

She said the service’s annual revenue target for 2026 stood at about N39bn, adding that more than N20.7bn had been generated as of the time of the briefing.

“Our target is around N39bn for the year. So, as of date, we’ve done over, I think, N20.7bn,” Adamu said.

She described revenue generation as one of the major achievements of the service, saying the agency had performed better than the previous year.

“When we talk about the Internal Revenue Service, our major achievement has to deal with our mandate, which is collecting revenues for the state.

“We have continued to grow our revenue year-on-year from the year we started here. So that is one of our major achievements. We are doing better than the previous year, 2025,” she stated.

The agency, according to the chairman, had also invested in human capital development by exposing its personnel to training and best practices within and outside the country.

“Secondly, we’ve been able to train our staff and expose them to best practices around the country, or the world, rather, because they’ve been attending several trainings, both virtually and physically, as well as visiting other nations,” she said.

Adamu said the agency had strengthened collaboration with several institutions, including the Gombe State Government, security agencies and the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, to improve intelligence gathering and revenue collection.

She said, “While doing that, we’ve been able to also collaborate with some of the stakeholders, such as the GRB, the security forces, the NFIU, where we gather intelligence to do tax collection.”

The chairman also disclosed that the agency had recovered more than four stolen vehicles during attempts to register them in Gombe State, noting that the recoveries were made when the stolen vehicles were brought to the state for registration.

She added that the recovered vehicles were handed over to the police, with some subsequently returned to their rightful owners.

Adamu urged residents and business owners who evade taxes to comply with their obligations, describing taxation as a social contract between citizens and government.

She said government required revenue to provide infrastructure and other essential services, stressing that taxpayers should therefore contribute their share, saying, “I would like to call on them because paying taxes is a social contract.”

“Government has done its own part by providing good roads, security, lights and other infrastructure, and those things are not free of charge. Someone has to finance them.

“And the government can only finance it with things such as the IGR. So it is mandatory, and they should be responsible for paying what taxes are due from that,” she added.