Similarly, he said there is need for government at all levels to develop policies that would help in sustaining the environment so as to address challenges ar​ising from poor urban planning.

Nnamani spoke at The Tax Experience organized by the Tax Club of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka with the theme, “The Role of Taxation in Shaping Nigeria’s Fiscal Future: Trends and Opportunities”, held at the Faculty of Law Auditorium, University of Nigeria Enugu Campus,

According to him, hazards such as flooding and fire incidents result from people building on water channels and unauthorized places, noting that such disasters can be avoided with a proper development policy.

“Some people build across waterways, gas pipelines, and energy lines, creating avoidable hazards. A regulatory body must ensure adherence to development policies,” Nnamani said.

Nnamani also called for a comprehensive national identity system as a fundamental step to addressing Nigeria’s tax administration challenges.

He noted that there is a gap in the tax system between Nigeria and developed countries which is affecting effective implementation of tax policies in the country.

The tax boss said developed nations such as the United Kingdom have developed a unique national identity number which is used to identify eligible taxpayers and monitor the level of compliance.

He added that such a system should be replicated in Nigeria without which ‘granting tax exemptions or waivers will only create opportunities for tax evasion.”

Nnamani expressed the view that granting tax waivers in Nigeria could be exploited by those outside the exemption bracket, adding that the government should look inward and come up with tax policies that suit its system rather than completely adopt foreign ones.

On the delay in completing projects in the country, Nnamani attributed it to inefficiency on the part of government officials and lack of willingness to complete them adding that it has resulted in infrastructural deficit bedeviling the country.

While noting the importance of technology in revenue generation, the Regional Head, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, for Abia, Anambra, and Enugu States, Dr. Charles Robin-Njoku, who was represented by Mr. Brightwell Asemota, said using technology helps in increasing revenue generation citing the progress the agency has made in automating its revenue generation processes.

 “Automation improved revenue collection from ₦6 trillion to ₦12.3 trillion last year, and our target of ₦19.3 trillion for 2024 is nearly achieved,” she said.

Digitisation of the tax system will help Nigeria achieve five things; it will safeguard privacy of taxpayers, enhance performance competition, improve accountability, reform governance and entrench democracy.

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Kashifu Inuwa, the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has said that there are many values to leverage on digitalision programme of the Federal Government to enhance efficiency of taxation and boost Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in the country.

Inuwa said at the panel session during 22nd Annual Technical Conference of the Commonwealth of the Association of Tax Administrators (CATA) organised by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in Abuja.

He noted that, Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, which NITDA serves as one of its parastatals, has put regulatory framework in place to check anomalies in the process of payment of tax to ensure transparency and accountability as well as building the confidence of taxpayers in the system.

According to him, Digital Literacy and Skills programme being run by the Agency will help in ensuring that Nigerians are digitally literate and can use digital platforms to access government services.

He added that, the programme will be achieved through the Agency’s ambitious target of achieving 95% digital literacy coverage of Nigerians by the year 2030 through steady digital capacity building and empowerment of citizens.

“People, process and technology are critical components of Nigeria’s digitisation programme whose potentials must be harnessed and channeled to the path for sustainable progress of the nation”, he noted.

Inuwa said issue of taxation is tied to Data, Security of taxpayers, their information and confidentiality, and NITDA is working to come up with strategies for citizens’ data protection.

He added that the Federal Government has established a commission, Nigeria Data Protection Bureau to ensure Data Security of Nigerians particularly the taxpayers are protected.

“Digitisation of the tax system will help Nigeria achieve five things; it will safeguard privacy of taxpayers, enhance performance competition, improve accountability, reform governance and entrench democracy.

“Statistics show that cyber security costs the World seven trillion dollars and is projected to reach ten trillion dollars by 2025. Though it is an expensive project, but effective and functional cyber security will turn around the fortunes of the country for the better,” he noted.

Inuwa also assured the participants NITDA’S resolve to work assiduously through the instrument of law that gave it a mandate to improve the functionality of technology components that will enhance taxation processes in the country.

“Leveraging the digital development potentials of artificial intelligence, blockchain among other areas will accelerate the processes of strengthening the Nigeria Digital Economic Project”, he concluded.

In 2019, N1.64 trillion in domestic revenue was raised, with tax income making up 64.65 percent of the total; in 2020, tax revenue increased to 66.16 percent of the N1.56 trillion in revenue.

Furthermore, the amount collected by states increased by 21.54 percent in 2021, reaching N1.90 trillion.

According to the state-level IGR for 2019–2021, which was retrieved from the NBS website, Lagos State led the IGR chart over the three-year period, accounting for N2.06 trillion in total income with N1.08 trillion in tax revenues.

Rivers came in second, producing N410.14 billion for the time period, of which N342.38 billion represented tax income.

In particular, Lagos made N646.61 billion, N659.99 billion, and N753.46 billion in 2019, 2020, and 2021, respectively, whereas Rivers made N169.60 billion, N117.19 billion, and N123.35 billion at the same time.

Kwara, Kogi, and Kebbi generated N77.21 billion, N58.04 billion, and N30.98 billion respectively in the period under review.

Also, Kano, Katsina, and Kaduna collected N112.8 billion, N31.9 billion, and N148.56 billion respectively.

The FCT, Zamfara, and Yobe recorded N298.53 billion, N52.88 billion, and N23.76 billion respectively.

In the same vein, Taraba, Sokoto, and Plateau generated N24.26 billion, N54.55 billion, and N57.02 billion, respectively.

Oyo State IGR for the three-year period was N116.7 billion, Osun N59.22 billion, Ondo N85.8 billion, and Ogun N232.71 billion.

Others were Niger N40.34 billion, Nasarawa N51.27 billion, Jigawa N50.06 billion, Imo N26.59 billion, Gombe N26.02 billion, and Enugu N81.49 billion.

Others include Abia N50.98 billion, Adamawa N31.03 billion, Akwa-Ibom N97.58 billion, Anambra N85.27 billion, Bayelsa N41.54 billion, Benue N40.23 billion, Borno N38.71 billion, Cross River N61.85 billion, Bauchi N43.22 billion and Delta N204.6 billion.

Ebonyi generated N39.46 billion, Edo N105.65 billion, Ekiti N39.54 billion, and Yobe N23.76 billion.

The NBS explained that the data is computed alongside the Joint Tax Board (JTB) from official records and submissions by the State Boards of Internal Revenue