Nigeria building strong business-friendly economy, says Tinubu
20 September 2024 |
3:58 am
President Bola Tinubu has reiterated his administration’s commitment to creating a robust financial system and business-friendly economy that will attract more foreign direct investments (FDIs).
Coca-Cola announces $1b investment
President Bola Tinubu has reiterated his administration’s commitment to creating a robust financial system and business-friendly economy that will attract more foreign direct investments (FDIs).
Tinubu made the commitment in Abuja, as the Coca-Cola Company announced plans to accelerate its investments in Nigeria to $1 billion over the next five years.
This was disclosed at a meeting Tinubu had, yesterday, in Abuja with the global leadership team of Coca-Cola Company, led by John Murphy, its President and Chief Financial Officer; and the Chairman of Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC), Segun Apata.
The President commended Coca-Cola for its long-standing partnership with Nigeria and for promoting investment opportunities that employed over 3,000 people across nine production facilities.
Tinubu told the delegation that private sector partnerships, which sustain investments, were central to his government’s far-reaching reforms to improve the business environment.
He pledged that his administration would continue to partner Coca-Cola to expand investments in Nigeria and address environmental issues, including climate change.
Presenting an overview of Coca-Cola’s business in Nigeria, Murphy noted that “the company generates N320 billion yearly through about 300,000 customers and contributes almost N90 billion” to the Federal Government.
He said, ‘’We are very proud of the growth of the business over a long period and its impact on the daily lives of many Nigerians.
‘’Beyond the financial impacts, we are also very committed to supporting the communities, and over the last number of years, we’ve had a special focus on many areas in the world of sustainability, water packaging and others.”
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, Mr Zoran Bogdanovic, explained that the company’s confidence in the Nigerian government’s policies encouraged it to make the $1 billion investment pledge.
‘’Mr President, in your inaugural address, we were very pleased to hear of your invitation to foreign investors and your assurance that foreign businesses could repatriate dividends and profits.
‘’That assurance gives us the confidence to continue our investments. Since 2013, we have invested $1.5 billion in Nigeria in capacity expansion, transformation of our supply chain, infrastructure capabilities, training and development,” Bogdanovic said.
Disclosing the company’s plan to invest additional $1 billion over the next five years, he added, ‘’We believe Nigeria’s potential is tremendous, and we are committed to working with the government to realise this potential.”
Coca-Cola had in 2021, during the 70th anniversary gala of NBC, also pledged to invest $1 billion in Nigeria to expand its operations in Nigeria.
Sokoto: We’re leveraging digital technologies to improve tax collection
THE Sokoto State Internal Revenue Service (IGS) has said it is leveraging on digital technologies to improve tax collection in the state.
Executive Chairman of the agency, Abubakar Zaki Tambuwal, who stated this during an interview, on Wednesday, said the governor, Ahmad Aliyu Sokoto, had been supportive in meeting the human and material resources of the agency, adding that improvement in the collection of taxes by the service is due to the conducive working environment provided by the governor.
He said: “Tax collection improved by 10 per cent since the enforcement exercise by the service began. Our strategy is straightforward, first, we have tried to understand our tax-payers and work in line with the law establishing the Service, which has guided our collections. We have automated all our processes and very critically blocked leakages and through enforcement and enlightenment improved the compliance rate. Our target for 2024 of N37 billion is achievable. I am confident going by our performance in the first three quarters.
“Technology has shown that it is relevant to all revenue collecting agencies. They must not only acquire it but must continue to update it to identify the tax base, monitor compliance and make the overall tax-payers’ experience easier. We are no longer talking about potentials. There is no profession, including football, that’s not making use of it. In football, you have the VAR that helps the referee to decide on any issue. So, we have leveraged on digital technologies to improve tax collection.”
He added: “The governor has invested heavily in the digitalisation of tax collection and I am certain he will continue to do so, especially as we continue to improve on collection. We must justify the investment in digital technologies. Being online means our tax-payers know we are open and reachable round the clock and throughout the globe. We are running an ICT-oriented revenue services. We have an Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS) that is accessible via itas.irs.sk.gov.ng and like I said earlier, all our operations have been automated through tax-payers’ enumeration, unique tax-payer ID generation, bill and invoice generation, electronic payments with more than five payment channels, tax assessment, tax clearance certificate, e-receipting and many more.
“Prohibition of cash collection is captured in our tax law and I believe that Sokoto State initiated this before Kaduna State. It has been a practice here even before the deployment of an automated method of payment. Cash collection is a serious misconduct. The law prohibits cash collection from tax-payers by our members of staff. Payments can only be made directly to the revenue accounts, and that has been simplified and automated through payment gateways.”
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