By Isaac Aregbesola

The Special Adviser to the President on Revenue, Mr Zacch Adedeji, says the President Bola Tinubu’s administration is committed to ensure judicious utilisation of the nation’s revenue and resources.

Adedeji made the disclosure on Thursday in Abuja at a one-day hybrid sensitisation workshop on the published “Guidelines for Private Sector Response to Illicit Financial Flow (IFF) Vulnerabilities in Nigeria”

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the event was organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

Adedeji said, “The President believes in fiscal discipline which rests on the accurate prediction of revenue.

“If the government can’t count your money, the government can’t allocate it and if the government can’t allocate it, it can’t manage it.

“The administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will make every kobo of our revenue counts,” he said.

The special adviser added that the government would strengthen the country’s fight against illicit financial flows (IFFs).

According to him, the IFFs have significantly eroded domestic revenues and hampered government’s efforts to mobilise resources, thereby threatening economic stability and sustainable development.

“In Nigeria and across the African continent, we continue to suffer various forms of IFFs, including tax evasion and other harmful tax practices, the illegal export of foreign exchange and abusive transfer pricing,

“Others are trade mis-pricing, mis-invoicing of services, illegal exploitation and under-invoicing of natural resources, organized crimes, and corruption,” he added.

He emphasised that stemming illicit financial flows would address its negative impact on global development agenda as well as governance challenge.

The special adviser commended the Chairman of the ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, for recording successes in the fight against IFFs.

“Some level of progress and successes have so far been recorded in the fight against IFFs.

“These have achieved through the concerted efforts of the ICPC’s sensitisation and capacity building of major players in the various sectors of the economy as well as citizenry on the menace of IFFs.

“These efforts have yielded great results and benefits as the nation through these robust engagements has plugged identified leakages/loopholes that enable IFFs by the relevant circulars issued by the Federal Government,” he stated.

He advised the relevant stakeholders at the sensitisation workshop to key into the government’s efforts to tackle IFFs.

“The published guidelines will set a new trajectory in the fight against IFFs in the private sector, thereby putting Nigeria at the forefront of African countries to achieve this great feat.

“The purpose of the published guidelines is to further assist, guide and strengthen the private sector operators in curbing IFFs.

“The aim of this publication is to set the path for more interventions in the fight against IFFs and IFF-related activities,” Adedeji said.

In his address of welcome, the ICPC Chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, said that IFFs was a drain on Nigeria’s potential revenue accretion and foreign exchange reserves.

According to him, this has resulted in exchange rate depreciation, inflation and increase in cost of servicing external debts.

“It is negatively impacting on the cost of imported goods like petroleum with its attendant radical consequences on daily livelihood experience of ordinary citizens.”

Owasanoye called for diverse measures to tackle the menace in all its forms, to improve Nigeria’s quest for domestic revenue increase relative to the size of its economy.

He gave assurance that the Commission would continue to focus attention on practical measures to enhance Nigeria’s ability to stem IFFs and reduce capital flight.

According to him, it will also enhance the country’s capacity for domestic resource mobilisation by identifying vulnerabilities and other weaknesses in the systems and processes of agencies and institutions within the public and private sector and advising reforms to mitigate losses.

 Owasanoye said that the workshop was necessitated by the need to get the feedback of the private sector constituency on any possible challenges towards implementation of the recommendations in the guidelines.

He added that a similar platform would be created for public officers and other stakeholders to ventilate the Guidelines for Negotiation of Contracts and Agreements.

Mrs Lola Adekanye, the Programme Director (Africa) of Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE),  gave an overview of the published guidelines while Mrs. Ayotola Jagun,

the Chief Compliance Officer and Company Secretary of Oando Plc,  outlined the private sector response to the guidelines.

Participants at the workshop were representatives of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria , Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria and  Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria.

 Others are Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture, the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Odu’a Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture and members of the Inter-Agency Committee on Stopping IFFs from Nigeria.

Also participated were Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria,, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, Bureau of Public Enterprises, and members of the Inter-Agency Committee on Stopping IFFs from Nigeria. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Deji Abdulwahab