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Centre seeks for Nigeria/Ethiopia partnership on tea, coffee production
The Centre for Coffee and Tea Initiative (CCTI) in Africa has called on Nigerian government to strengthen bilateral relationship with the Ethiopian government on tea and coffee production for additional foreign exchange.
The Founder of the centre, Mr. Innocent Mbonu was speaking at the International Coffee, Tea Day in Abuja on Wednesday.
Mbonu said that Nigeria produced tea and coffee and send to Cameroon which they claim ownership of.
“We have gone to the National Assembly with a bill and very soon we are going to have the National Coffee and Tea Council that will take care of activities pertaining to tea and coffee in Nigeria.
“About 23 states can produce coffee in Nigeria without stress, the highland tea, the lowland tea as well as coffee, so we want to see how we can sensitise all activities so that Nigeria will come back in producing coffee and tea in Nigeria.
“Tea and coffee is next to oil like Ethopia is using it as their foreign exchange earner. In Nigeria, we will know how to do things, so we’ll look at the activities of how we can do and get it done well.
“The land is there, they are fertile both in the north, south, east and west, everywhere is fertile for the growth of coffee and tea. So why don’t we do it by ourselves.
“Most of the coffee and tea produced in Mambila plateau in Taraba state is being sent to Cameroon and the Cameroonians are using the French people to produce it as made in French communities, so we can exploit the atmosphere and begin to get it right,” he said.
Also, the Ethiopian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Yonas Sanbe, said that both countries could leverage on their population to strengthen bilateral relationships for the production of tea and coffee.
Sanbe said that the economy of both countries was dominant with cultures particularly the coffee production, hence Nigeria must harness this area to generate additional money for its economy.
“I think Nigeria and Ethiopia also are founding members of Africa Union (AU), so our relations grow stronger particularly in multiple distribution in Nigeria.
“This connects Nigerians to the rest of world and the Africans. So we signed the agreement regarding the bilateral issues and business issues.
“So we are working to strengthen the center. In Ethiopia, about 50 per cent of the coffee produced in the country is consumed locally for its high market- domestic markets
“We are trying to diversify our economy from agriculture to promote the foreign direct exchange which Nigeria can also take a cue from,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Director General, Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Doko Ibrahim, said that the council’s efforts in raw materials utilisation had led to the popularization of various products.
Ibrahim said this led to the production of Moringa tea, medically proven to be essential for some classes of dietetic patients.
” Under the RMRDC boosting programme, the council has supplied tea seedlings to tea farmers in the Mambila plateau and further supported with tea processing equipment
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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