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Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi
Kebbi State Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu has advised that Nigerians must be ready to make heavy sacrifices if they want the country to progress rapidly.
Bagudu stated this on Thursday in Birnin Kebbi during the 7th zonal tax conference of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), North-West zone.
The Governor, who spoke on the conference titled ‘Revenue generation and tax management in a growing economy, issues and challenges’, noted that Nigeria is not making enough progress because citizens are not sacrificing enough for the future.
“There is a difference between where we need to be and where we were. We need more revenue to meet up with our goals. We have to find a way of financing our goals. We need to sacrifice for our future because we are not making enough progress all because we don’t generate enough IGR (Internally-Generated Revenue) to finance our goals,” the Governor said.
He added that there was an urgent need to have accurate data on the population of pupils and teachers in schools for proper planning, including in the health sector, stressing that the Chartered Institute of Taxation has to intervene in that matter.
In his remark, the Sokoto State Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Abdussamad Dasuki, who was represented by Mallam Aminu Dahatu Zurmi, disclosed that their state’s IGR has increased from N9 billion to about N20 billion, saying that the state has continued to use the revenue judiciously.
Earlier, the President and Chairman of Council of CITN, Dame Olajumoke Simplice, in her remarks, noted that for any country to develop rapidly, tax management must be addressed.
“The world over, particularly in developing economies, revenue generation and effective tax management has always posed a challenge. This challenge is more pronounced in mono-product economies, which Nigeria, sadly, belongs to.
“Such countries have faced serious challenges in mobilising adequate revenue to fund development. Government authorities until recently had largely focused their efforts in exploring their natural resources and exporting same for foreign exchange earning from these resources, coupled with corruption and poor management of these economies. There is now focus on revenue from other sources, particularly, taxes,” she stated.
