Depending on who you ask, Nigeria’s economy under Buhari is either in dire straits or gestating in a cocoon about to burst forth.
So what is it really?
The Naira has continued to crash against the Dollar and the Pound, the price of Oil continues to fall, inflation has been steadily climbing and so much more, so there’s a temptation to assume that the economy is in a very bad place.
But for the first time in ages, the Federal Government has been able to raise over N500bn for the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, in June.
What’s more, it came majorly from non-oil sources, with a whopping 70 percent coming from non-oil sources while only 30 percent came from oil sources. It was the first time in 2016 that the Federal Government shared over N500bn among the three tiers of government.
All this is due to the hard work of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, under the leadership of Babatunde Fowler.
Fowler took over the reins of the FIRS in 2015 after being appointed by Buhari, replacing Samuel Odugbesan, a former Coordinating Director at the agency.
He has since then strived to increase revenue generation through tax. He said as much in an interview where he talked about the amount of tax that has been received this year,
“In terms of actual collections of the second quarter, it was close to 90 per cent.
“Looking at it cumulatively, first and second quarter is about 73 per cent so we hope to achieve a 100 per cent rate this year.
“You got to realise that revenue is seasonal and I wouldn’t want to give the wrong impression that we have collected as much as we should have.
“All we are saying is that those who are making income and making profit pay your taxes.”
In a statement found on the website of the FIRS, it was explained how Fowler and his team were able to increase the revenue of the Nation through tax.
An excerpt; Fowler noted that FIRS tax revenue collection is seasonal, but a combination of massive new taxpayer registration drive, tax education and engagement through the establishment of the Federal Engagement and Enlightenment Tax Teams, FEETT, audit of five key sectors: banks and the financial sector, aviation, power, telecoms and oil and gas is beginning to yield results. He said that FIRS has also added over 700,000 new corporate accounts since he assumed office.
The FIRS chairman said the FIRS and the SBIRs identified collaboration in registering of more taxpayers across states, data sharing, exchange of information, joint audits to improve efficiency and tax yields from audits, capacity building through joint training programmes and exchange of personnel.
It is clear that Buhari identified Fowler as the man who could help with the success of revenue generation after his success at the Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue where he reportedly achieved a sharp increase in internally generated revenue from an average of N3.6. billion per month in January 2006, to an average of about N20.5 billion per month in 2013.
Before now, the monthly revenue generation of the federation has been fluctuating between N200bn – N300bn but July witnessed an astonishing rise in the monthly revenue generation of the federation by more than N300bn up to N559.03bn from last month’s N237.46bn, the difference being N301.32bn which is the highest it has been in almost two years.
Not only that, but there was an improvement of N12.6bn by Nigeria Customs Service, as well as the exchange gain of N79.2bn which shows a steady increase in the revenue profile of the nation.
What is more exciting is that the Federal Government seem to be able to this without relying heavily on Oil sources, as Fowler was quoted as saying, “It has come to a point where we should say, okay, let us leave oil aside. Let us face non-oil sources. This is the first time in recent times that the Federal Government shared the excess of N500 billion and 70 percent of that sum came from non-oil sources. This means that we can do more if we are determined. All hands must be on deck to grow our tax revenue. We must find a way of bringing the rich people into the tax net.”
So while the improvement has hardly been noticed, the FIRS under Fowler and ultimately under Buhari is working hard to make Nigeria a thriving economy again.
Truly the FIRS is Buhari’s secret weapon.