Addressing Revenue Leakages in Nigeria

The effects of illicit financial flows on oil and gas revenue generation in Nigeria

“…Africa loses US$60bn annually to illicit flows and Nigeria accounts for 68% of this amount (Eme et al, 2015). President Muhammadu Buhari decried Nigeria's loss of $157.5bn to IFFs at the recently concluded United Nations General Assembly in 2019 at New York (The Nation, 2019).…”

Investigating the Effectiveness of TSA in Blocking Public Funds Leakages in Nigeria

“…Some of the issues that have pervaded the public discourse centre on good governance and prudent utilisation of the country's resources and the need for tax payers to get value for contributing their own part of the governance social contract (Eme, Chukwurah and Ihenacho, 2015). Nigeria as a country is reputed for unabated wastefulness in managing its resources, considering the international oil market uncertainties, the menace of macroeconomic instability in many developed economies, pervading poverty, unbridled insecurity, increasing youth unemployment level, grossly inadequate infrastructures that ordinarily should have driven growth in the economy, the need for Nigeria to ensure judicious utilisation of tax revenue for accelerated development cannot be over-emphasised (Eme, Chukwurah and Ihenacho, 2015).…”

“…Some of the issues that have pervaded the public discourse centre on good governance and prudent utilisation of the country's resources and the need for tax payers to get value for contributing their own part of the governance social contract (Eme, Chukwurah and Ihenacho, 2015). Nigeria as a country is reputed for unabated wastefulness in managing its resources, considering the international oil market uncertainties, the menace of macroeconomic instability in many developed economies, pervading poverty, unbridled insecurity, increasing youth unemployment level, grossly inadequate infrastructures that ordinarily should have driven growth in the economy, the need for Nigeria to ensure judicious utilisation of tax revenue for accelerated development cannot be over-emphasised (Eme, Chukwurah and Ihenacho, 2015). Unfortunately, many years of consistent advocacy for accountability and transparency in the application of earned incomes from taxation by Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), fiscal policy experts, and other stakeholders have not translated to significant gains as the required commitment of political leaders and their civil servant collaborators at all level of governance to plug leakages in the management of public funds is still missing (Eme, Chukwurah and Ihenacho, 2015).…”

“…Nigeria as a country is reputed for unabated wastefulness in managing its resources, considering the international oil market uncertainties, the menace of macroeconomic instability in many developed economies, pervading poverty, unbridled insecurity, increasing youth unemployment level, grossly inadequate infrastructures that ordinarily should have driven growth in the economy, the need for Nigeria to ensure judicious utilisation of tax revenue for accelerated development cannot be over-emphasised (Eme, Chukwurah and Ihenacho, 2015). Unfortunately, many years of consistent advocacy for accountability and transparency in the application of earned incomes from taxation by Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), fiscal policy experts, and other stakeholders have not translated to significant gains as the required commitment of political leaders and their civil servant collaborators at all level of governance to plug leakages in the management of public funds is still missing (Eme, Chukwurah and Ihenacho, 2015). This is despite the steps the government has taken in broadening the scope of the country's sources of tax revenues by introducing tax reform measures, particularly policy and regulatory guidelines, including the streamlining of the hitherto complex and multi-layered system, being adopted by federal and state governments.…”

“…According to Jonah Otunla, the former Accountant-General of the Federation, prior to TSA, Nigeria had multiple banking arrangements for revenue and payment transactions. He stated that, "There were more than 10,000 bank accounts in multiple banks, which made it impossible to establish government consolidated cash position at any point in time (Eme, Chukwurah and Ihenacho, 2015). It led to pockets of idle cash balances held in MDAs' accounts when the same MDAs were out borrowing from commercial banks" (Opeyemi, Samuel, Faboyede and Peter, 2017).…”