Emma Okonji
A renowned economist, Mr. Tope Fashoyin, has advised governments across all levels in the country to look inward and become more aggressive in generating money from tax to drive the economy.
Fashoyin who was monitored yesterday on ARISE Television, a sister broadcast station of THISDAY Newspapers, said Nigeria had in the past, depended so much on oil, but must begin to look inward in the area of tax to drive the economy, especially at a time when oil prices are dropping due to economic reforms and crises across globe.
He explained that although the federal government was making efforts to take Nigeria out of recession, with a projected 3.5 per cent growth in GDP by next year and seven per cent growth in GDP by 2020, he however said Nigeria could achieve 10 per cent growth in GDP, if government become more aggressive in its thinking and focus more on money generation through taxes.
His view is however contrary to the United States President, Donald Trump’s view, who said yesterday that the US would come up with infrastructure reforms that will reduce taxes in the US. According to Trump, “Americans pay huge amount of taxes and the highest in the world and this has to be reviewed.â€
Trump’s statement on huge taxes was captured by ARISE Television thursday.
Citing recent crises across globe, Fashoyin said such crises are already affecting prices of oil negatively, the reason why Nigerian government must become aggressive in its thinking and look inwards in the area of taxes to generate more money to drive the Nigerian economy.
He said Nigeria must restructure in order to strengthen the naira to grow the economy.
He advised that the federal government should move away from borrowing and think aggressively on new ways to grow the Nigerian economy.
