We have Discovered Measures to Generate N18tn revenue to GDP – FG
The Federal Government has said that both oil and non-oil initiatives have been identified to help the country generate between N13tn to N18tn and achieve its 15 per cent revenue to Gross Domestic Product target.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed said this on Thursday, July 24, during a webinar that focused on leveraging data to drive inclusive policy, revenue generation and improved governance.
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Ahmed said the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiative of government inaugurated last year would help the government in achieving this revenue growth target.
The finance minister noted that states would need to generate N3.4tn to realise this, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic had brought to the fore the need and urgency to further diversify the sources of government revenue.
Ahmed further said that the pandemic and crash in crude oil price had drastically impacted on government’s revenue, but explained that the Federal Government had been adopting several measures to tackle the challenge.
“Under the SRGI, therefore, we have identified various revenue initiatives that could potentially generate N13tn to N18tn across both oil and non-oil sources, and ensuring that we are able to achieve a 15 per cent revenue to GDP target by 2023.
“Importantly, we recognised that the support of states would be necessary to achieve the 15 per cent target. In fact, the states would need to cumulatively generate about N3.4tn.
“Analysis of revenue data shows that as at 2018, Nigeria’s revenue to GDP ratio stood at about eight per cent, significantly below many comparator countries on the continent, as well as the continent average,’’ the minister added.
