By Henry Uche
Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) has commenced the third batch of intensive training on tax audit in the oil and gas sector for eight senior personnel of Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA).
The eight days training which started on Monday in the commercial hub of Nigeria- Lagos, is aimed to boost the capacity of tax the personnel for more effective and efficient tax management and administration in the oil and gas sector of the country.
Addressing newsmen, the team leader of Gambia Revenue Authority, Mr. Abdulrahman Bah, who is the Director of Legal & Board Services, said the objective of the training was to boost their capacity and strength while the country hope to explore huge oil prospects.
“We have oil prospects and some exploration activities, so we need to build a foundation before we strike oil. Nigeria being an oil giant in the continent have a lot knowledge to share with us, we want to learn from their experience so we can be well positioned to manage tax issues relating to oil and gas to avoid mismanagement of oil proceeds and other unwholesome practices” he affirmed.
On his part, the President/Chairman of Council of CITN, Mr. Samuel Agbeluyi, full of excitement said the Gambia Revenue Authority took an informed decision to seek knowledge from CITN, given the technicality of taxation and criticality of oil and gas sector in any country.
Agbeluyi affirmed that CITN has the best resource persons to transfer the knowledge the Gambian tax personnel desires. “They have taken the right step to acquire requisite knowledge on tax audit in the oil and gas sector.
“We know transparency and accountability is key in governance and administration. I believe they would be better positioned after this training to prudently handle the challenges ahead of them in this sector as they are about to detect oil, they want to learn from our (Nigeria) experience, and they would get it” he assured.