Dike Onwuamaeze
The PwC’s Fiscal Policy Partner and West Africa Tax Leader, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, has tasked the regime that would come into power on May 29 to find creative means of increasing Nigeria’s tax to GDP ratio to at least between 15 per cent and 18 per cent.
Oyedele gave this task recently at a session that was organised by the Nigeria-South Africa Chamber of Commerce (NSACC) on “The 2023 Elections, Political Economy and Nigeria’s Business Environment Outlook.”
He said: “We need to get to a point where we can do something transformational to our revenue, not just the incremental progress that we are celebrating. We need to get to a point where our tax to GDP ratio is in the region of 15 per cent to 18 per cent or even higher.”
He also discussed some ongoing economic issues including a huge budget deficit and the Naira redesign crisis.
Oyedele, who quoted Abraham Lincoln, said that “the best way to predict the future is to create it,” adding that Nigeria’s challenges would not go away in 2023 but it can safely be predicted that things would gradually improve.
According to him, what is needed is for all to be mindful of likely challenges but still be open to opportunities while challenging the status quo with a solution mindset.
In his contribution, Partner and the Chief Economist of PwC Nigeria, Dr. Andrew Nevin, stated that Nigeria neither has a debt or revenue problem but a growth problem.
Nevin said: “This narrative that we’re a low tax country is just simply incorrect, we are actually a high tax country, but the basic problem with this is, we don’t grow.”
Answering a question around the need for technology adoption and digital transformation, Partner and West Africa Lead, Strategy, Mr. Olusegun Zaccheaus, said that the adoption of technology is a very important factor to create efficiency within the economic system.
“We think technology will be critical as we navigate these changes within a quality environment. I believe it is impacting all angles… Companies need to accelerate their digital transformation to ensure they can offer the right services to the users and sort of build trust,” Zaccheaus said.
Associate Director and Regional Lead for Clients and Marketing Development PwC West and East Africa, Ms. Delia Asuzu, reiterated the importance of sustainability which is key to PwC’s global strategy.
