The Joint Tax Board (JTB) has hailed the Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat on its contributions to the reinvention of tax administration in the country.
Speaking at the NGF’s 2-Day Training on Human Resource Management for States Internal Revenue Services held at the Forum’s secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday, the Executive Secretary, Joint Tax Board, Mr. Oseni Elamah, extolled the NGF on its role in spearheading enhanced revenue generation amongst states in the country.
“I appreciate the NGF on the role it is playing towards ensuring the attainment of the lofty ideals of enhanced revenue generation in the country, especially given the need for states to explore alternative sources of funding under the reality of dwindling federal allocations. It was without much resistance that during the 137th meeting of the Board in 2017, the NGF was admitted into the Board, having an Observer status.
“It is my pleasure to announce that the expectations of the JTB have been vindicated as the NGF has been involved in organizing programs that has had positive influence on the Nigerian tax environment,” Elamah said.
Speaking further during the event, Elamah acknowledged the crucial role the Forum is playing in complementing its efforts of reinventing itself to evolve services that would adequately and comprehensively re-position the respective Revenue Authorities in the country.
“The contributions of the NGF are quite welcome at this critical point in time in the history of tax administration in Nigeria.
“Under the astute leadership of the Chairman of the JTB, Mr. Tunde Fowler, the Board is reinventing itself to evolve its services to adequately and comprehensively re-position the respective Revenue Authorities in the country to fully key into the positive trends and internal best practice in the administration of tax so that revenue generation does not become unpredictable.
“To achieve this, a number of novel initiatives and programs have been designed that are geared at not only building the capacity of human capital for professional and quality service delivery, but re-engineering the operational processes and institutional framework that will bring about a more sustainable outcome for enhanced growth in IGR.
“It is heartening to note that the NGF has been reinforcing the role of the JTB in this regard via the implementation of the States Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) Reform Initiative, an initiative that has as its primary objective, the constructive engagement of the State Chief Executives of selected states currently constrained in optimizing their revenue generation and administration capacity is just one of such collaborations,” Elamah concluded.
Earlier, the Director-General of the NGF, Mr. Asishana Okauru, had declared the two-day event open, urging the participants to take advantage of the offerings of the workshop to hone their skills.
Participants at the event which takes care of the north central zone were from Nasarawa, Kwara, Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Benue and the FCT.
