FG New Revenue Initiatives to Fetch N18 trillion, Says Finance Minister
The federal government has identified new revenue initiatives that could fetch the country between N13 trillion and N18 trillion, the Finance Minister, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, has said.
Ahmed said the target of the revenue initiatives was from oil and non-oil sectors of the economy under the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiative (SRGI) which was launched last year.
Speaking during a web conference titled Leveraging Data to Drive Inclusive Policy, Revenue Generation and Improved Governance,”, she said the federal government was committed to achieving 15 percent revenue-to-GDP target in the next three years.
Noting that this was below those of Nigeria’s comparator countries and the continent average and ERGP target, she added that there were efforts to start working to achieve 15 per cent target.
She added that the current “coronavirus pandemic has brought to the fore the need and the urgency to further diversify the sources of government revenue and the wisdom of our Strategic Revenue Growth Initiative which we launched in 2019”.
“Unfortunately, too often, we have let emotions rather than data drive the need to diversify our revenue sources.
“Analysis of revenue data showed that in 2018, Nigeria’s revenue to GDP stood at eight per cent, significantly below our comparator countries in the continent as well as the continent’s average. It was also below the Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP) target of 15 per cent GDP. In fact, even at 15 per cent revenue to GDP, Nigeria will still lag behind comparator country. But there is an ongoing effort to move towards that 15 per cent. Under the SRGI therefore, we have identified various revenue initiatives that would potentially generate N13 trillion to N18 trillion across both oil and non-oil revenue sources to ensure that we achieve the 15 per cent revenue-to-GDP target by 2020.”
She added that the economic and fiscal challenges being witnessed in the country have “resulted from limited resources in the face of unlimited needs and wants”.
She opined that to deliver good governance, government has to spend, adding that the revenue to meet such expenditures had been diminished and worsened by the COVID-19 and worsened by the crash in oil prices.
Ahmed said the target of the revenue initiatives was from oil and non-oil sectors of the economy under the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiative (SRGI) which was launched last year.
Speaking during a web conference titled Leveraging Data to Drive Inclusive Policy, Revenue Generation and Improved Governance,”, she said the federal government was committed to achieving 15 percent revenue-to-GDP target in the next three years.
Noting that this was below those of Nigeria’s comparator countries and the continent average and ERGP target, she added that there were efforts to start working to achieve 15 per cent target.
She added that the current “coronavirus pandemic has brought to the fore the need and the urgency to further diversify the sources of government revenue and the wisdom of our Strategic Revenue Growth Initiative which we launched in 2019”.
“Unfortunately, too often, we have let emotions rather than data drive the need to diversify our revenue sources.
“Analysis of revenue data showed that in 2018, Nigeria’s revenue to GDP stood at eight per cent, significantly below our comparator countries in the continent as well as the continent’s average. It was also below the Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP) target of 15 per cent GDP. In fact, even at 15 per cent revenue to GDP, Nigeria will still lag behind comparator country. But there is an ongoing effort to move towards that 15 per cent. Under the SRGI therefore, we have identified various revenue initiatives that would potentially generate N13 trillion to N18 trillion across both oil and non-oil revenue sources to ensure that we achieve the 15 per cent revenue-to-GDP target by 2020.”
She added that the economic and fiscal challenges being witnessed in the country have “resulted from limited resources in the face of unlimited needs and wants”.
She opined that to deliver good governance, government has to spend, adding that the revenue to meet such expenditures had been diminished and worsened by the COVID-19 and worsened by the crash in oil prices.
FOLLOW US
About Post Author
