19 million Nigerians now pay taxes - VP Osinbajo

The  Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday declared open the 2018 edition of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) conference with a revelation that the nation had increased its tax net from 14 million in May 2017 to 19 million this year.


Osinbajo, who was the Special Guest of honour at the event, stated that as at Dec. 2017, only 943 Nigerians paid self-assessed taxes of less than N1 million.

“Earlier, I noted that as of May 2017, only 14 million economically active Nigerians pay taxes.

“I am pleased to note that the number is now in excess of 19 million and still growing.

“This means that efforts led by the Federal Inland Revenue Service in collaboration with many of the states inland revenue services have already added more than five million new taxpayers to the tax base.

“But there is still a lot of work ahead of us; as Nigeria races to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of tax compliance we all have a role to play in this.’’

The Vice President noted that tax issues were not exciting to anyone but added that it was an argument on whether one should pay taxes or enjoy dividend of governance.

Source