From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), World Bank Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and the International Centre for Tax and Development, have stressed the need for taxpayer-friendly and technology-driven revenue administrations in all 36 states of the federation.
The NGF Director General, Asishana Okauru, at the opening of the maiden ‘Technology & Tax Event’, organised by NGF with the support of World Bank and the International Centre for Tax and Development, stressed the need for each government to put necessary measures in place to mitigate against associated risks. “The goal for us is to help facilitate the scale up of modern, taxpayer-friendly, and technology-driven revenue administrations in all states of the federation that will be capable of providing world-class services; characterised by efficient, paperless operations, and equipped with ICT-enabled risk-based enforcement capable of optimising their revenue mobilisation strategies.”
According to him, the lessons drawn from the COVID-19 pandemic showed that all revenue administrations need to move to a digital future. “Even in the African continent, there have been several innovations which have been forced by the pandemic –including the provision of social assistance through mobile phone on a larger scale than ever before, as well as increased technology-based learning.
2020 did for technology services what the 1930s did for financial services – with the growth in the regulation of commercial, investment banks, stock and commodity exchanges. We believe tax administration should be no different. “We have taken this step to bring together technology providers, service providers and researchers in the tax space into one network to take advantage of the innovation that is taking place.