Dr Muritala Awodun, the Chairman, Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS), said the Service had concluded plans to employ 200 workers in order to boost service delivery.

Awodun stated this on Thursday in Ilorin, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

"The number of people we are looking at for employment is about 200 as core staff of the service," he said.

The chairman said the recruitment process started about a month ago, explaining that the service was autonomous and not under the civil service structure.

According to him, workers of the dissolved Revenue Board who are not ready to join the new KWIRS will be transferred to the Ministry of Finance.

Awodun said KWIRS would work with the local governments' revenue collection departments to shore up the revenue base of the state government.

"We know that local governments have constitutional duty to collect taxes and rates, but for convenience of collection and to avoid duplicating taxation, we can work together in tax collection," he added.

On the relationship with Harmony Holdings Limited, he said "KWIRS is set up to generate revenue for the state government, while the firm is a company set up by the same government to oversee government's investments. (NAN)