By; USMAN NASIDI, Kaduna
Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in partnership with Afropolitan Media Limited, on Thursday April 6, 2023, organized a national sensitisation and capacity-building training programme for media professionals on the Nigerian Tax Ecosystem.
The workshop held at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Centre at the Farm Centre Area of the commercial city of Kano, had in attendance a full house of practicing journalists in Kano cutting across legacy and new media spectrum, led by the Chairman, NUJ Kano Council, Malam Abbas Ibrahim
A statement issued to newsmen in Kaduna by Osigbesan Sultan Luqman, disclosed that, FIRS and Afropolitan Media Limited conceived the workshop in order to update the media on new developments in the Nigerian tax system, since the Executive Chairman, FIRS, Mr. Muhammad Nami, took charge of the service in December 2019, following his appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to the statement, the media is expected to inform the nation, especially the taxpaying public, from a deeper position of knowledge of tax administration for overall nation-building purposes.
However, the programme was also designed to sensitise the media on new challenges posed by fresh developments to tax organisations in the country and worldwide, and how the Nami reforms at the FIRS have surmounted these fresh hurdles to the benefit of taxpayers in Nigeria and the nation.
During the event, lectures presented with the topic “Understanding the Rudiments and Importance of Taxation in Nigeria” were in over two sessions of three (3) modules by Dr. Zaharaddeen Salisu Maigoshi, of Accounting department, Bayero, University, Kano and Fellow, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).
While responding to the topic “General Overview of the Nigerian Tax Ecosystem” delivered by the resource person (Dr. Maigoshi), the journalists-participant asked several incisive questions based on the first module, their experiences as both taxpayers and as journalists whom the public interrogates on tax matters such as multiple taxation and how the three tiers of government spend tax revenue.
Similarly, Dr. Maigoshi delivered two more modules on the topic “FIRS: Roles, Responsibilities and Administration” and “Reforms and Innovations in the FIRS: TaxPromax, Finance Acts, SENTINAL”, which also led to an extensive question and answer engendering a robust debate and exchange of ideas between the resource person and the participating media professionals.
Earlier in her opening remarks, Chief Executive Officer, Afropolitan Media Limited, Hajiya Aisha Umar Halilu, welcomed the journalists to the workshop and underscored the importance of the FIRS and her firm partnership engaging them through the event, stressing that as the eyes and ears of the people, the Nami administration believes that the media is indispensable to the national tax education or mobilisation efforts of the Service.
Hajiya Halilu urged the participants to deploy the new knowledge and fresh insights the workshop has equipped them with in their reports of the Nigerian Tax System as currently driven by cutting-edge reforms being implemented by the Nami leadership of the FIRS and the Board of the Service.
She added that, the doors of tax authorities like the FIRS were always opened, hence the media should endeavor to seek clarification from the FIRS in grey areas before filing their reports.
Malam Abbas Ibrahim, Chairman NUJ Kano State Council, thanked the FIRS and Afropolitan Media Limited for bringing the workshop to Kano, stating that the FIRS had hitherto appeared to be a far-away cult organization, which journalists could not readily approach, a notion which the workshop has now dispelled as the FIRS has shown itself an open, near and willing partner to journalists.
While appreciating the occasion, the participants pledged to work closer with the FIRS to enlighten the public on the need to pay tax promptly for national development.
Meanwhile, prior to Kano event, the FIRS/Afropolitan Media Limited capacity-building workshop for media practitioners was held in Mararaba, Nasarawa State and Kaduna, Kaduna State on Wednesday 29, March, 2023 and on Tuesday, 4 April, 2023, respectively.
