FIRS Conference Seeks to Tackle Illicit Financial Flows, Tax Evasion

James Emejo in Abuja

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) yesterday said it will host a national conference on Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) amid efforts to safeguard the country’s financial integrity.
In a statement, Special Adviser on Media to the FIRS Chairman, Mr. Dare Adekanmbi, said IFFs  remained a menace that adversely impacts revenue collection.

He said the two-day conference with the theme, “Combating Illicit Financial Flows: Strengthening Nigeria’s Domestic Resource Mobilisation”, will serve as a platform for reflection on actionable solutions, reinforcing the federal government’s commitment to protecting financial integrity and ensuring that domestic revenue is fully harnessed for national development.
According to him, the event will bring together experts from various fields, including policymakers, tax administrators, law enforcement agencies, anti-corruption agencies, financial experts, and international stakeholders.

Further commenting on the conference, Executive Chairman, FIRS, Dr. Zacch Adedeji, said the event will showcase the agency’s intensified efforts in tackling IFFs, including strengthening compliance mechanisms, enhancing beneficial ownership transparency, and leveraging technology to detect and deter tax evasion, trade mispricing, and other illicit outflows.
He said, “Before now, we have set in motion machinery to tackle IFFs by approving capacity building programmes for staff members of the agency on how to identify and block IFFs, and to increase revenue collection from the multinational corporations.

“In sustaining this, we also approved the establishment of Proceeds of Crime Management and Illicit Financial Flows Coordinating Directorate (POCM-IFF), which is pivotal to addressing the menace. Taxes play a very strategic role in the nation’s economy.
“Before now, the federal government had established an Inter-Agency Committee on Stopping IFFs from Nigeria in its efforts to curb the illicit flows.”
The committee, according to him, comprises FIRS, Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nigeria Customs Service, Central Bank of Nigeria, and Securities and Exchange Commission, among others.
A key member of the United Nations High Level Panel on IFFs, also known as the FACTI Panel, Hon. Irene Ovonji-Odida, will deliver a keynote address, while the Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite, will chair the conference.

Ovonji-Odida, expressed hope that the conference will result in  increased understanding of IFFs and commitment to action which is needed to curb it.
The conference is scheduled for July 22 – 23, 2025 in Abuja.