IMF Pledges Continued Support for FIRS
…Commends Tax Administration Progress
By Patience Ikpeme
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has committed to ongoing support for the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to ensure effective tax administration, crucial for Nigeria’s growth and development.
The IMF also openly praised the FIRS for what it described as significant progress in its core duties.
Paulo Paz, a Senior Economist at the Fiscal Affairs Department of the global body, offered this commendation on Wednesday at the opening of an IMF-supported Headquarters Mission at the Revenue House in Abuja. Paz stated that the IMF recognizes the “good work that FIRS has been providing to the citizens” under the leadership of its chairman, Dr. Zacch Adedeji.
A statement from Dare Adekanmbi, Special Adviser on Media to the FIRS chairman, clarified that the IMF team’s mission to Nigeria is to explore how the Bretton Woods Institution can further assist the agency in addressing potential challenges, especially those arising from the recently signed tax laws.
According to Paz, the new tax laws will bring a new impact to Nigeria. “And we want to know how we can best support you with this new challenge. Our take on the four tax laws is first a recognition of the very good work that FIRS has been providing to the citizens,” he stated. “You have at the same time the recognition and new responsibilities with these very powerful laws which will increase the relevance of the tax administration in Nigeria.”
Paz concluded by saying, “I want to express our honour of being here and being a partner of FIRS. Thank you for your trust in our advice. We congratulate you for the good results so far. There is more to come, and we are here to help.”
Dr. Adedeji, welcoming the visitors, applauded the IMF for its collaboration with the tax body, stating that the relationship would continue even when the agency transitions to the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) next year. Adedeji, whose remarks were presented by his Chief of Staff, Tayo Koleosho, specifically praised IMF cooperation with FIRS in portfolio management and its compliance programme.
“IMF has gone on this journey with us, and I think we are in a good place to continue the journey together,” Koleosho stated on Adedeji’s behalf. “We are working together either in digital transformation, VAT automation, looking at even the compliance programme and ability to automate some of those things.” He further explained, “I am interested in corporate plan and the nexus of data portfolio management so that we have our strategy being dissolved into those manageable tasks. It’s very important that those things are well handled.”
In her remarks, Mrs. Bolaji Akintola, coordinating director of the Corporate Services Group, explained that the IMF has been a critical partner in FIRS’ journey towards tax system reforms aimed at improving domestic revenue mobilization. She stated that FIRS, with IMF support, conducted two systemic evaluation exercises using the Tax Administration Diagnostic Assessment Tool (TADAT) between 2018 and 2023.
“Each of these exercises was followed by a post-TADAT mission where a reform roadmap was developed to address the systemic weaknesses that were uncovered by the assessment,” Akintola noted. “The fact that the results of the 2023 TADAT showed significant improvement on those of 2018 is indicative of the commitment of the Service towards institutional excellence.”
Akintola added, “Let me assure you that if another TADAT is conducted today, the result will be better than that of 2023 because a good number of the weak indicators from the 2023 Performance Assessment Report have been addressed and some have been codified in the four tax reform laws recently signed by President Bola Tinubu.”
