ESIRS Cuts Land Use Charge, Unveils Property ID App

The Enugu State Internal Revenue Service, ESIRS, has crashed land use charges across the state and announced plans to roll out a property identification app as part of efforts to widen the tax net and make payment easier.

The ESIRS Chairman, Mr. Emmanuel Nnamani, disclosed this while giving account of the agency’s three years in office.

Nnamani said the new land use charge rates now vary by location.  

“Independence Layout is ₦70,000, Abakpa is ₦20,000 and village houses are ₦10,000,” he stated.  

He explained that the review was part of reforms to make the charge a sustainable revenue source for the state.

The ESIRS boss also announced that a *property identification app* will soon commence. The app, he said, will give every property owner a unique identification for land use charge purposes.  

“Students are going to be engaged for the enumeration and we will pay them every week,” Nnamani said.

Giving a breakdown of the administration’s performance, Nnamani said ESIRS revenue grew from ₦37 billion in 2023 to ₦180.5 billion in 2024, and ₦406.7 billion in 2025.

He attributed the growth to Governor Peter Mbah’s “disruptive innovation” and the autonomy granted ESIRS through a law that made it a one-stop shop for revenue collection.

“*The autonomy granted us many things such as changing the mindset of workers*,” he said. “The state gave us target and we expanded our technology from mono gateway on Interswitch and expanded our central revenue system to seven payment gateways, such as UPS, Flutterwave. You can pay at the bank, from house using options of over 300 POS, transfer, giving ease of payment even on weekends. So people pay at their convenience.”

According to him, the agency banned cash payments, unbundled other revenue agencies into a central system, and collaborated with sister agencies.  

Nnamani said staff capacity was also upgraded. “We did training for our staff and declared an emergency that every staff must have a laptop or tablet. We also got internet that works and relied on solar energy.”

On compliance, he said the agency is expanding collection to *haulage fees* and enforcing *withholding tax* and *capital gains tax*.  

For the Economic Development Levy, he gave new rates: Enugu North LGA ₦150,000, Enugu East and Enugu South ₦120,000, Nsukka ₦80,000, while every other LGA is ₦20,000. He noted that 20 to 25 people start new building construction in the state daily.

Addressing concerns, Nnamani said the agency is not collecting one percent of turnover as provided in the tax law, but a flat ₦36,000, yet “people are complaining.”

“*I’m a tax collector and you have to convince me why you should not pay*,” he said. “The law provides for exemption which you must do tax filing. Everybody should go and read the tax law.”

He added that full tax compliance implementation will soon take effect at both federal and state levels, but it is “not aimed at shutting down Igbo business.”

“*It’s not like that, people should pay their taxes and not evade it*,” Nnamani said.

He further noted that before his administration, informal sector payments were going to non-state actors, while land use charge, stamp duty and capital gains tax have now been streamlined into state revenue.

ESIRS said the combination of technology expansion, staff welfare, and enforcement is driving the revenue jump and making tax payment more convenient for residents.