Tax professionals advise government on World Bank loan

The Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) has urged the Federal Government to channel the proposed $800 million World Bank loan to economic development.

Adesina Adebayo, president and chairman of Council, CITN, said this at the 3rd edition of CITN presidential press briefing and media workshop for tax/finance reporters/correspondent in Lagos.

Nigeria’s finance minister Zainab Ahmed recently announced that Nigeria secured an $800 million grant from the World Bank for cash handouts to the poor as part of efforts to end a costly fuel subsidy by June.

Africa’s largest economy plans to use the loan as a form of palliative measure, as the nation gears up to gradually eliminate fuel subsidies.

“The most important thing we should be emphasizing as a country is to talk about economic development”, Adesina said.

Responding to questions from journalists, he said, “If you are talking about distributing money let’s look at it this way. How long and how sustainable can maybe N5,000 go in the country of today?

“I agree maybe in some very critical rural areas it may impact a little but at least it is the same thing as giving people fishes and teaching them how to fish.

“Somebody that was employed yesterday loses his job. How long will the N5,000 continue before you are now forced to face the reality of the fact that we need to really develop economically and we need to really develop.

“To me that will be a good one at the beginning but we still need to go back to the drawing table and address the issue of economic development bearing in mind that in less than 25 years from now our population would grow from 200 million to around 400 million, he said.

The CITN president said the Institute has made deliberate efforts in addressing issues of policy as to practice license, admission processes, improving the governance and administration of the institute and the Tax Academy.

He said the use of information technology was equally strengthened, adding that the Institute has deliberately focused on its corporate communication to build a meaningful relationship with members and stakeholders by ensuring “we are not ‘winking’ in the dark.”

“We have moved the issue of tax education to the secondary school level, and we are engaging with relevant stakeholders to ensure that tax education should be taught at secondary school level to build knowledge and understanding in future taxpayers,” he said.

“We strive to stay true to the reason why we exist, which is to develop the tax profession by doing just three things: focus on tax education and Knowledge, focus on effective tax regulation, focus on tax governance for corporate and national development.

“We have been focused on strengthening our leadership both management and council level, because a ‘fish only rots from the head,” he said.