The
Anambra State Internal Revenue Service (AIRS) has debunked the claim by
the Former Governor of the State and Presidential Candidate of the
Labour Party in the last presidential election, Peter Obi, that
SABMiller Breweries is the highest taxpayer in the state. This is
contrary to the actual ranking, which places the company sixth on the
AIRS list.
Dr. Greg Ezeilo,
Charman of AIRS, affirmed that while the state has made monumental
strides in increasing the internally generated revenue from its low ebb
of between N1.5 billion and N2 Billion per month, and even much lower in
previous years, the tax collection has moved up to N4 billion per
month, with an all-time high of N10.5 billion in May 2025 under Governor
Charles Chukwuma Soludo.
He said SABMiller
comes in a distant sixth position, with First Bank at the top of the
list, followed by Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa, Access Bank, and
Fidelity in fifth position.
The AIRS boss pointed out that SABMiller made a gross payment of N656.5million from 2023 to 2024.
According to Dr.
Ezeilo, the statement made by Peter Obi in one of his campaigns about
SABMiller as the highest taxpayer is false, and has been refuted by
AIRS, with accurate facts on the state’s tax records.
“In this sense, the
claims can be dismissed with a wave of the hand as the company
contributed on average, N28 million per month in 2023 and N26.62 million
in 2024,’ he stated.
Furthermore, the
AIRS Chairman remarked that the clarification is necessary to properly
situate the former governor’s claims and to give undiluted information
for the people of the state to note.
It has become
worrisome that Peter Obi has been making assertions based on wrong data
in his political campaigns for his candidate. It is clear that if he is
not using Malaysian data, he will use Indonesian references, which are
not supported by facts.
Against this
backdrop, Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo’s administration is
transforming Anambra into a destination and the Dubai-Silicon Valley of
the country, where economic and business activities thrive. This will
further enhance the state’s economy and have a productive effect on its
internally generated revenue.
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