Stakeholders have differing opinions on the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (NDIC) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service’s (FIRS) proposal to spend a combined N8.7 billion this year on software alone.
The Ministry of Budget and Economic Development has issued the budget for government-owned businesses (GOEs) for 2024, which includes N8.7 billion. To further its goal of tax reform in 2024, FIRS intends to spend N3.5 billion on software acquisition.
With N5.2 billion, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has the largest software budget among GOEs, with the sum being the second-biggest.
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), which has a proposed budget of N384 million, the National Pension Commission (PenCom), and the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), with a budget of N874.5 million, are the other GOEs that intend to purchase software this year.
During a recent visit, Dr. Zacch Adedeji, the Executive Chairman of FIRS, stated that the organization was going through a change that would increase the amount of technology it uses to power its operations.
He states that people, technology, and procedures will be the three foundations upon which the new FIRS will be built.
“Our goal is to create a company that is more focused on its customers. In this manner, we can raise tax revenues without raising tax rates by bringing more people into the tax system.”
“We are embracing an integrated tax approach, utilizing technology at every turn, in our quest for a more modern and effective tax administration system. In a world that is changing quickly, this strategy puts FIRS at the forefront of innovation and guarantees that we fulfill the changing requirements of our taxpayers,” Adedeji stated.
Nonetheless, there are worries that ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) are using the yearly practice of allocating billions of naira for software upgrades to embezzle public monies.
In response to the FIRS’s N3.5 billion software budget, Lead City University’s Professor Godwin Oyedokun stated that although it is challenging to comment on the budget—particularly given the lack of project details—anything that can facilitate Nigerians’ flawless tax experiences is appreciated.
Oyedokun, a council member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), stated that technology would play a major role in the FIRS’s adoption of a contemporary tax procedure.
Speaking next, Benjamin Ogbeide, a former chairman of the CITN Abuja branch, said it made sense for FIRS to aggressively invest in technology since “this is the way to go.”
“Despite its bottlenecks, the Tax Promax that they implemented a few years ago has significantly contributed to their increased tax collections. They increased from N8 trillion in 2019 to N12 trillion in 2023, as you can see, and they can still do more if we want them to. All they need to do is put more money into technology.”
