Featured
FG, World Bank Commit To Boost Nigerian Youth Skills, Mental Health, Others

Joel Ajayi
The Federal Government and World Bank have reiterated their commitment towards enhancing the capacity and boosting skills of Nigerian youth, as well as improving their mental health to contribute their quota to the overall development of their fatherland.
It will be recalled that the issue of youth unemployment cannot be overemphasized as millions of Nigerian youths enter the labour market every year.
The commitment to address youth unemployment, a significant issue in Nigeria, is evident in the efforts to empower young people to contribute to the overall development of the country.
The collaboration between the federal government of Nigeria and the World Bank is centered on enhancing the capacity and skills of Nigerian youth, with a particular focus on entrepreneurship, mental health, and skill assessment audits.
Speaking on Friday, in Abuja when the World Bank West African Practice Manager Nigeria delegations paid her courtesy visit in her office the Minister of Ministry of Youth Development Dr. Jamila Bio Ibrahim expressed that the ministry is making progress because all the activities it embarked on since assuming the office is now pay off.
According to her, we are ready to facilitate good working relationships with organizations that will prosper many Nigerian Youths.
“And for me as the Minister of Youth Development on behalf of the ministry, we’re ready to facilitate for the world lighting and the ministry team to further engage so that we do things according to know what the bureaucratic processes require.”
Minister of Youth Development, however, uttered enthusiasm for the project proposal from the World Bank.
However, She advocates for the youth well-being department to address mental health sexual health, and other challenges
On his own, the leader of the delegation of the World Bank West African Practice Manager Nigeria Tekabe Ayalew Belay Analyzed the state of Nigerian youth across various categories, including intrapreneurship, civic participation, and health status.
He said: “There is a need to boost the skill of Nigerian youth, and collaboration aims to provide a comprehensive report on youth in Nigeria by mid-March, with a focus on data-driven insights and collaboration with the ministry.
“We need to discuss and agree is a look at the improvement that entrepreneurship state of the youth of Nigeria.
“I think we also wanted to see the empowerment of youth the rights, their civic participation, their activities, the contributions, even vote the voter turnout does happen when we think those are important kinds of indicators. To the extent that we get the data, we want to give you a fuller picture. Another aspect to wanting to look at it even broadening the analysis. We can even look at the state of the youth in terms of the health status, the mental health, substance abuse, early marriage, all those issues.”
Speaking earlier, the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Youth Development, Dr.Umar Ahmed Dunoma, welcomed the World Bank delegation and expressed the readiness of the Ministry to collaborate with world bodies to better the Nigeria of Nigerians.
He stated that the ministry is working so hard to ensure it meets its mandate of providing an enabling and empowering environment for Youth development as well as ensuring that National Youth policy is in place for the benefit of the youth.
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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