Governor Willie Obiano explains why he suspended taxes and levies on wheel barrow pushers, hawkers, others

As part of efforts to cushion the harsh effects of the current
economic recession, the governor of Anambra state, Willie
Obiano, yesterday, announced the immediate suspension of
sale of emblems, collection of wheel barrow tax and hawkers
permit in all parts of the state. Governor Obiano announced
this in a broadcast entitled ‘Rising from the brink,’ yesterday
September 21st.
He said his administration had lowered Okada and Keke
levies to N50 and N200 daily respectively to cushion the
effect of the recession.
“I am happy to announce to you that I have come up
with a stimulus package that will ease the pain of the
recession and help our dear state bounce back to
prosperity. I want to assure you that the government
of Anambra State is fully aware of the difficulties you
are going through in your families, in your businesses
and in your various communities . I wish to assure
you that you are not alone. I feel your pain. Our
country’s painful journey into the current recession is
fairly known to us. The events that triggered this
decline are very well documented in the public
domain. I wish to assure you that after a careful study
of the situation,I am more convinced now than ever
before that with our fundamentals, our infinite
capacity to come back from deficits and our implicit
faith in God, our story should be different in Anambra
State.
Consequently, our intervention which comes in four
key areas which are tax relief programme, special
intervention programmes for Small and Medium
Enterprises, MSMEs and Large Enterprises, social
intervention programme for low income households
and intervention in infrastructure-for-jobs. The
objective of the tax relief programme is to evaluate
existing taxes, levies and fees in the state and
introduce some waivers and in some cases, scrap
the collection of some illegal levies imposed on our
people to cushion the impact of the recession on
households in the state. Next is the special
intervention programme for Small and Medium
Enterprises, MSMEs and large enterprises. This
sector of the economy accounts for over 800,000
jobs in Anambra State today. These businesses are
suffering from the acute drop in the supply of foreign
exchange at the moment and are left with two
options; scale down their operations or shut down
completely. My role as your governor is to envisage
challenges and provide solutions that will ensure a
speedy comeback from difficult situations that
require the power and might of a state government.
This is what my administration has done in the past
two years through Anambra Small Business Agency.
This agency is a very important institution I created to
serve as a catalyst to our domestic economy. So far,
ASBA has effectively distributed the sum of N1.5bn
as start-up capital to many SMEs and MSMEs in
Anambra State. These funds are part of the N2bn that
the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, made available to
states about two years ago to help stimulate local
entrepreneurship across the country.”he said