Featured
Come Up With Innovative Ideas, FG Charges Nigerian Youth

…As NYCN Hails Buhari, Ministry NYIF initiative
Joel Ajayi
The federal government has appealed to the Nigerians youth to come up with innovative ideas that could lead to wealth/job creation that will help bring the 9 cardinal goals of the present administration as well as to bring growth and development to the country.
The Minister of Youth and Sports Development Mr Sunday Dare gave this charge when Executives of National Youth Council of Nigeria NYCN paid him a visit on Monday in Abuja.
Youth Minister, ably represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mr Gabriel Aduda, noted that the NYCN has taken a bold and commendable step to thank Mr President on the establishment of the NYIF.
He stated that the Memo on the establishment of the fund was thoroughly debated and it enjoyed an overwhelming support by members of the Federal Executive Council. This gesture is to enable the teeming population of the Nigerian youth to be economically motivated for sustainability.
Mr Dare added that it is important to go beyond empowering the youth into investing in the youth of Nigeria with a common pulse that supports entrepreneurship and small businesses as well as provide the environment for youth to fly with their ideas. He stated that the 75Billion Naira will come in three trenches between now and 2023 nothing that Mr President has given directives to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning alongside the Central Bank Governor to source for the money.
According to the Minister, the Ministry through the Technical/Steering Committees that shall be put in place, which will include the youths, shall be working on modalities to enable Nigerian youth to have access to the fund and payback within a short period with not more than 1 digit interest rate.
The President, National Youth Council of Nigeria, Amb. Sukubo Sara-Igbe Sukubo, in his response, expressed gratitude to the Honourable Minster whose supervision in the youth constituency has recorded massive positive developments including the National Youth Investment Fund recently approved by Mr President. Sukubo noted that Nigerian youth have experienced a breath of fresh air and hope is kept alive owing to the visionary foresight of the Minister for the growth of the youth of this country.
‘To all my fellow Nigerian youths, it is a new dawn for us, the sound of hope echoes in the air. The long-awaited dream has become a reality and I can testify that there is a song of joy in our lips, he said.
In his vote of thanks, the Hon. Commissioner for Pan Africa Union in Nigeria, Mr. Niyi Oladele, thanked President Buhari for the economic empowerment by creating this National Youth Investment Fund for the Nigerian youth and other programmes of the ministry on social media to keep the youths off the streets.
He, however, made a call to the President to kindly direct all youths related activities and programmes scattered in other Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government to be redeployed and warehoused in the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development for proper coordination.
Business
Tax Reform Bills: The Verdict of Nigerians

Ismaila Ahmad Abdullahi Ph.D
The public hearings conducted recently by the two Chambers of the National Assembly have elicited positive responses from a broad spectrum of Nigerians, cutting across regional interest groups, government agencies, civil society groups, concerned individuals, the academia, and Labour Unions, among diverse others. Contrary to a few dissensions hitherto expressed in the media, almost all the stakeholders who spoke during the week-long sessions were unanimous in their declaration that the hallowed Chambers should pass the tax reform bills after a clean-up of the grey areas.
The public hearings were auspicious for all Nigerians desirous of economic growth and fiscal responsibility. They were also a watershed moment for the Federal Inland Revenue Service, which had been upbeat about the tax reforms. Indeed, the public hearings had rekindled hope in the tenets of democracy that guarantee freedom of expression and equitable space for cross-fertilisation of ideas. Without gainsaying the fact, the tax reform bills have been unarguably about the most thought-provoking issues in Nigeria today, drawing variegated perspectives and commentaries from even unlikely quarters such as the faith-based leaders, student bodies, and trade unions, which speaks much about the importance of the bills.
In the build-up to the public hearings, not many people believed that the bills would make it to the second reading, much less the public hearings. Even the Northern stakeholders who seemed unlikely to support the passage of the bills have softened their stance and have given valuable suggestions that would enrich the substance of the bills. The Arewa Consultative Forum came to the public hearings well-prepared with a printed booklet that addressed their concerns. It concluded with an advisory that the bills should be “Well planned, properly communicated, strategically implemented and ample dialogue and political consensus allowed for the reforms to be accepted.”
The concerns of ACF ranged from the composition of the proposed Nigeria Revenue Service Board as contained in Part 111, Section 7 of the bill, the unlimited Presidential power to exempt/wave tax payment as proposed in Section 75(1) of the bill, the family income or inheritance tax as contained in Part 1, Section 4(3) of the bill, to the issues around development levy and VAT. On the development levy, the ACF stated that unless the Federal Government is considering budgetary funding for TETFUND, NASENI and NITDA, it does not see the “wisdom behind the plan to replace (them) with NELFUND”.
The position of the North was equally reinforced by the Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria, Northern Elders Forum, Kano State Government, Professor Auwalu Yadudu, and the FCT Imams. Like the ACF, these stakeholders lent their respective voices to the Section on the Inheritance Tax in Part 1 of the bill and the use of the term ‘ecclesiastical’, which, in their views, undermines certain religious rights and beliefs. The Kano State Government, represented by Mahmud Sagagi, affirmed that “we support tax modernisation” but cautioned that “we must ensure that this process does not come at the expense of states’ constitutional rights and economic stability”. Professor Auwalu Yadudu, a constitutional law professor, drew attention to the use of the ‘supremacy clause’ and cautioned that the repeated use of “notwithstanding” in the bills would undermine the supremacy of the Nigerian constitution if passed as such.
Other stakeholders that made contributions at the sessions included the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Nigeria Customs Service, and a host of others. While most of their concerns bordered on technical issues requiring fine-tuning, they were unanimous in their support for the bills. They aligned with the position of the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Zacch Adedeji, Ph.D. and the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, which is that the extant tax laws and fiscal regulations are obsolete necessitating reforms aimed at creating a fair and equitable tax and fiscal space to grow Nigeria’s economy.
In one of the sessions, Dr Zaach Adedeji expounded on the criss-cross of trade activities in the Free Trade Zone whereby companies misuse tax waivers as exporters to sell their goods or services in the Customs Area at an amount usually less than the price the operators in the Customs Area who pay VAT and other taxes sell theirs thereby disrupting business transactions. This way, the operators in the Free Trade Zone shortchange the government in paying their due taxes by circumventing extant regulations, which are inimical to the economy’s growth.
Overall, the presentations were forthright, foresighted, and helpful in elucidating the issues contained in the bills. According to the statistics read out at the end of the hearings at the Senate, 75 stakeholders were invited, 65 made submissions, and 61 made presentations. At the House of Representatives 53 stakeholders made presentations. By all means, this is a fair representation. Given the presentations, it is evident that the National Assembly has gathered enough materials to guide its deliberations on the bills. As we look forward to the passage of the bills, we commend the leadership of the National Assembly for their unwavering commitment to making the bills see the light of the day.
Abdullahi is the Director of the Communications and Liaison Department, FIRS.
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