The federal government on Wednesday unveiled it’s Strategic Revenue Growth Initiatives (SRGI) for sustainable revenue generation in all sectors of the economy.
Speaking at the unveiling, the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, pointed out that revenue enhancement has become a critical challenge in terms of the need to mobilise fiscal resources to deliver on socio-economic development targets as set out in the ERGP, based on the current fiscal terrain and recent revenue outturn performance.
According to the minister, “This mandate is very critical and important and I intend to make it my priority. It also is the very reason we are all gathered here at this launch event.challenge of revenue generation has been over the years despite referred to largest economy in the continent.
She further stated that the case remains the same with current contribution between oil and non-oil revenues to oil and non-oil Gross Domestic Product (GDP), hence the need to launch the SRGI.
She said: “Nigeria’s low revenue generation capabilities have been an enduring challenge to past and present governments. Although we are celebrated as the country in Africa with the largest economy, translating this wealth into revenues remains a challenge.
“We have therefore faced difficulty in mobilizing domestic funds necessary for human capital development and infrastructure that are both drivers of sustainable economic growth. Our current revenue to GDP ratio of about seven per cent is unsatisfactory and we are keen on exerting all efforts in turning this around.
“The case remains the same with our current contribution between oil and non-oil revenues to oil and non-oil GDP, for which our analysis on oil revenue to oil GDP reveals as 39% while non-oil revenue to non-oil GDP as 4.2%.
“Our VAT revenue to GDP in Nigeria for example stands at less than 1% (0.8%) which compares unfavourably to the ECOWAS average of 3.4%. So also, is our excise revenue which is 4.1%, compared to Ghana at 15% or Kenya at 19.5%.
“The first thematic area is on achieving sustainability revenue generation to optimally collect revenues, so we always maintain fiscal buoyancy and resilience.
“The second thematic area is on identifying new revenue streams and enhancing the enforcement with regards to revenue collection on our existing revenue streams.
“The third thematic area is targeted at achieving cohesion between revenue generating entities and equipping them with cutting-edge tools and expertise needed to support high performance, so we can turnaround our current performance on revenue outturn to meet revenue targets that we are charged with.
“The revenue initiatives have been broken into clear implementable portfolios for each relevant MDA and I believe that these are well thought out initiatives targeted at improving our tax base and collections, ensuring we have big data to work with, deploy a single trade platform, among many others.”
The Minister also disclosed a strong coordinating and governance unit will be deployed to monitor progress and results on revenue generation, which she will chair.
Meanwhile, she noted that the pointed out that SRGI is critical to development and growth of the economy and national life, and stated that relying on volatile oil revenues that fluctuate depending on international energy markets and prevailing exchange rates have been risky and is beyond government’s control.
Earlier, the permanent secretary in the ministry and secretary Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit be (PICA), Dr MK Dikwa while giving an overview noted that the new revenue drive was the brainchild of the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed.
He said, “the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiatives (SRGI) “serves as one of the mechanisms that will assist in improving public confidence in the tax system, delivering on governments priorities as it concerns the welfare of its citizens, growing the revenue system while ensuring the full recovery of our stolen commonwealth.
