When Kemi Adeosun, Nigeria’s minister of Finance, met with fellow Finance ministers, at a G24 Group meeting at the ongoing IMF/World Bank Spring meetings in Washington DC,
to discuss strategies to drive non-oil revenue growth and achieve inclusive growth, recently, she said revenue mobilization was critical to the success of Nigeria’s economic reform agenda.
“We have an unacceptably low level of non-oil revenue, and much of that is driven by a failure to collect tax revenues,” admitted the minister.
With a tax to GDP ratio of only 6 per cent, one of the lowest levels in the world, she said Nigeria has a lot of work to do if it must build a sustainable revenue base that will deliver inclusive growth. “Our data gathering programme over the last year has now given us the tools we need to be more aggressive at pursuing tax avoiders, both domestically and abroad. Just like some of our contemporaries in the G24 have done successfully, we are going to focus on tax in 2017 through an asset an income declaration scheme to address our low tax revenue collection and ensure improved compliance, a broader tax base and more sustainable revenue. This is fundamental to delivering on our reform plans,” she added.
The minister also highlighted the need for strong budget implementation and transparency to create trust and accountability in government, saying, “While we focus on raising revenue’s and bringing people into the tax system, we must be equally aggressive in our approach to budget implementation and transparency. Our people must know where their hard earned tax contributions are being spent and the impact that they are having on national development, and the daily lives of citizens. This will be a core focus for us.”
Adeosun also met with Moody’s and Fitch, ratings agencies, to update them on progress towards economic reform objectives. She similarly met with the World Bank Country team to discuss the status of on-going projects in Nigeria, and the pipeline of projects for 2018.