Kashifu Inuwa, the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has said that there are many values to leverage on digitilisation programme of the Federal Government to enhance efficiency of taxation and boost Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in the country.
Inuwa said this at the panel session during 22nd Annual Technical Conference of the Commonwealth of the Association of Tax Administrators (CATA), organised by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in Abuja.
He noted that the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, which NITDA serves as one of its parastatals, has put 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 issue of taxation is tied to Data, 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 are protected.
“Digitisation of the tax system will help Nigeria achieve five things; it will safeguard privacy of taxpayers, enhance performance competition, improve accountability, reform governance and entrench democracy.
“Statistics show that cyber security costs the World seven trillion dollars and is projected to reach ten trillion dollars by 2025. Though it is an expensive project, but effective and functional cyber security will turn around the fortunes of the country for the better,” he noted.
Inuwa also assured the participants NITDA’S resolve to work assiduously through the instrument of law that gave it a mandate to improve the functionality of technology components that will enhance taxation processes in the country.
“Leveraging the digital development potentials of artificial intelligence, blockchain among other areas will accelerate the processes of strengthening the Nigeria Digital Economic Project”, he concluded.