Nigeria and its institutions should leverage digital tools to enhance the efficiency of taxation and boost Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in the country, the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa has said.
Inuwa, who stated that at the panel session during the 22nd Annual Technical Conference of the Commonwealth of the Association of Tax Administrators (CATA) organised by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in Abuja, noted that the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, which NITDA serves as one of its parastatals, has put a regulatory framework in place to check anomalies in the process of payment of tax to ensure transparency and accountability as well as building the confidence of taxpayers in the system.
According to him, Digital Literacy and Skills programme being run by the Agency will help in ensuring that Nigerians are digitally literate and can use digital platforms to access government services.
He added that the programme will be achieved through the Agency’s ambitious target of achieving 95% digital literacy coverage of Nigerians by the year 2030 through steady digital capacity building and empowerment of citizens.
“People, process and technology are critical components of Nigeria’s digitisation programme whose potentials must be harnessed and channeled to the path for sustainable progress of the nation”, he noted.
Inuwa said the issue of taxation is tied to Data, the Security of taxpayers, their information and confidentiality, and NITDA is working to come up with strategies for citizens’ data protection.
He added that the Federal Government has established a commission, Nigeria Data Protection Bureau to ensure Data Security of Nigerians particularly the taxpayers is protected.