Business

RMAFC Urges Shift Towards Economic iversification

Published

1 month ago

September 17, 2025

By Joel Ajayi

Rising from a strategic retreat organized for members of its Mobilisation and Diversification Committee (M&DC), the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has emphasized the urgent need for all tiers of government to pursue transformative economic diversification in response to current economic realities.

This was contained in a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja by the Head of the Commission’s Information and Public Relations Unit, Maryam Umar Yusuf.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the retreat themed “Clarifying the Strategic Role of the Mobilisation and Diversification Committee and Leveraging Diversification Mandate to Drive Nigeria’s Economic Transformation”, the Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Muhammed Bello Shehu, OFR, highlighted the purpose of the retreat. Held at the Jade Room, Metropolitan Hotel, Calabar, Cross River State, from Thursday, September 11th to Saturday, September 13th, 2025, the retreat aimed to assess existing revenue mobilisation frameworks, explore innovative avenues for economic diversification, strengthen collaboration with subnational governments and relevant stakeholders, and develop actionable policy recommendations.

Dr. Shehu, who was represented by the Federal Commissioner representing Kwara State, Honourable Ismail Mohammed Agaka, stated:

“Nigeria’s fiscal trajectory is at a crossroads. While the Federal Government continues to face growing expenditure needs, Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) remains insufficient across most states. The time has come for all stakeholders to adopt a deliberate and data-driven approach to revenue mobilisation and economic diversification.”

Also speaking, the Chairman of the Mobilisation and Diversification Committee and Federal Commissioner representing Edo State, Honourable Victor Eboigbe, said the retreat was convened to critically examine issues affecting the committee’s performance and deliberate on innovative, actionable strategies to achieve realistic economic diversification across all levels of government.

At the conclusion of the retreat, the Committee issued a communiqué outlining several key recommendations:

That economic diversification efforts by governments at all levels should be adopted as one of the proxies in the revenue allocation formula.

That subnational governments should be sensitized through collaboration with the six regional development commissions to organize zonal advocacy initiatives.

That the Commission should develop a National Policy Document on Economic Diversification, taking into account the economic potential and unique circumstances of the three tiers of government.

That the M&DC should collaborate with all relevant stakeholders to gather critical data and insights needed to effectively execute its mandate.

That Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) should be strengthened to foster collaboration among federal, state, and local governments in order to boost investment and stimulate economic growth.

The communiqué further recommended organizing zonal advocacy programs to enhance revenue generation by integrating the informal sector into the tax net, leveraging the banking and financial sectors.

Additionally, the Committee emphasized that governments at all levels should initiate and prioritize projects with high revenue potential and job creation capacity. It also called for the continuation of infrastructural development projects initiated by previous administrations.

To ensure continuity and adaptability, the Committee recommended rebranding and reorganizing past economic diversification programs of the Commission to align them with present-day economic realities.

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Business

TAJBank Emerges Nigeria’s Biggest Non-Interest Bank

Published

1 week ago

October 23, 2025

The Gleamer

Cyril Ogar

After five years of operations in Nigeria’s rapidly evolving non-interest banking (NIB) space, TAJBank Limited has become the biggest player in the NIB subsector based on its total assets and gross earnings values.

Disclosing this during his paper presentation on the key performance indices in the non-interest banking space over the past few years at a seminar organized by Leaders Corporate Services with the theme “Roles of Non-Interest Banks In SMEs’ Financing” for SME entrepreneurs yesterday in Abuja, an investment expert, Mr. Olabode Akeredolu-Ale, maintained that based on the non-interest banks’ approved financial statements for the half year 2025, TAJBank currently remained the biggest in terms of its total assets.

The expert, a chartered stockbroker, specifically confirmed that his recent investment researches on the NIBs and their financial performances showed that TAJBank, with its total assets rising to N1.017 trillion in half year 2025 up from N953.098 billion as of December 2024, which is about N53 billion higher than the nearest NIB’s assets, now ranked top in the banking subsector.

According to him, TAJBank’s gross earnings for H1 2025 also surged to N53.752 billion from N32.86 billion as of December 2024, representing a 64% growth, and higher than the nearest NIB’s gross earnings in the period under review.

This is even as he disclosed that on the NIBs’ earnings per share during the half year, TAJBank reported N61.36 kobo earnings per share, about 92% higher than the earnings per share of the next NIB during the period.

Akeredolu-Ale, who is also a chartered accountant, clarified: “The figures I am reeling out here on the NIBs are sourced from the banking and capital market regulatory institutions’ platforms, which anyone can access to verify.

“I am part of this event because of my research interest in non-interest banking and how the players in the subsector in Nigeria can help to leverage their competencies in innovation and ethical banking to support our MSMEs.

“Today, the MSMEs cannot access DMBs’ loans due to high lending rates and other inclement macroeconomic factors. This is where I think the NIBs have become very crucial to Nigeria’s economic growth.

“Overall, my findings on the NIBs indicated that they are all trying their best with non-interest loans to support entrepreneurs, particularly the MSMEs owners. I have advised those of them at this seminar to explore the cost-friendly financing options of the NIBs to grow their businesses by opening accounts with the NIBs”, the expert added.

Another speaker at the event, Benjamin Chukwudi, also commended the NIBs for their “catalytic roles in helping SMEs to access interest-free loans and providing them the needed financial management advisory, which have been helping them in sustaining their operations in the face of rising cost of doing business in the country.”

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