To deepen the knowledge of the Nigerian tax administration among finance correspondents, to enable them report the sector with knowledge and better understanding of the issues and benefit of taxpayers in the country, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has unfolded a national sensitisation and capacity-building training programme for journalists.
The Chairman of FIRS, Muhammad Nami, said the training programme organised in partnership with Afropolitan Media Limited became imperative following several reforms initiated by the Service under his leadership.
These reform, Nami said, has posed new challenges by rapidly unfolding developments to tax bodies in the country and globally, especially by e-commerce, which has removed transnational borders and broke down transcontinental barriers.
The first of the capacity-building series was held on Wednesday had as participants in Nasarawa State for both print, broadcast and online journalists in the State.
Chief Executive Officer, Afropolitan Media Limited, Hajiya A’isha Umar Halilu, said “the workshop was aimed at bringing participants up to date on current challenges faced by tax authorities like the FIRS.
She said the programme was also to highlight the importance of the media reporting these challenges ethically and responsibly in close collaboration with the FIRS and other tax bodies at the sub-national levels and for the education of the taxpaying public.
Halilu who lauded Nami and the FIRS for supporting the capacity-building training programme, urged journalists to take advantage of the opportunity to enrich their knowledge.
The theme for the capacity-building programme is “The Role of the FIRS in Driving the Nation’s Tax Administration for Nation-Building”.
Participants were taken through three modules by Managing Partner at Shehu Mohammed & Co. Shehu Olaitan Mohammed, and Ma’roof Ibraheem Ajibola, both Fellows of the Chartered Institute of Accountants (FCA).
Presenting the module on a “General Overview of the Nigerian Tax Ecosystem”, Mohammed broke down the issues into the basics in concise, clear bits covering federal, state and local government tax administrations, the types of taxes each level is backed by law to collect and the operational setup of the FIRS, the taxes the Service collects, their percentages and other technical details in taxation.
He said the Nami reforms at the FIRS has widened the Nigerian tax net, leading to new record collections despite such global challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two other modules entitled, “FIRS: Roles, Responsibilities and Administration” and “Reforms and Innovations in the FIRS: Tax Promax, SENTINAL and Financial Acts” ere presented by Ajibola.
Ajibola’s presentation showed that the FIRS under Nami modernised the Nigerian Tax Administration and integrated it into the global taxation system through cutting-edge, homegrown Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and partnership with tax authorities across the world.
For instance, Ajibola stated that the Tax Promax automated tax software currently in use by the FIRS was conceived and built by FIRS staff under Nami’s direction and the current FIRS Board.
Prior to this, he said the FIRS relied on a Canadian-built software – Amanda – to collect tax in the country, which was serviced at huge foreign exchange burden on Nigeria.
Ajibola said the global SENTINAL software system was used by the FIRS to track and tax e-commerce transactions in Nigeria, stressing that this has enabled the Service to block holes hitherto in the tax net, making it impossible for anyone to evade paying tax on online purchases, betting, etc.
He also spoke on the origin of the 2019 Finance Act, which was renewed yearly by an Act of the National Assembly.
The groundbreaking reforms initiated by the Nami Administration at the FIRS, he said, have benefitted the taxpayers in the form of reliefs provided by the Finance Act, seamless, easy-to-use filing, self-assessment technologies, record tax collection revenue in trillions of Naira, which makes more money available for the three tiers of government to spend on public infrastructure.
