‘Why tax compliance must be consistent’

By Ambrose Nnaji  

Nigeria’s tax system is confronted with many problems, which include multiplicity of taxes, bad administration, non-availability of database and policy inconsistency.

To solve the problem, the Nigerian- Norwegian Chamber of Commerce (NNCC) Chairman, Chijioke Igwe, has canvassed the need to harmonise tax laws to enable stakeholders understand them.

He spoke at a Breakfast Meeting of the chamber in Lagos.

Speaking on the theme: “The Nigerian tax compliance challenge: Companies vs. regulatory authorities”, he said the harmonisation became necessary to ensure that firms stayed within the law.

Igwe said a some of the objectives of the chamber was to quantify the volume of businesses yearly, adding  that there  is a dearth of data on that.

Read Also: Nigeria among world’s top 20 in tax collection, says Fowler

NNCC Director-General Sarah Dumbrill noted that there were opportunities in every sector. She, however, stated that Norwegian firms had competence and technology to contribute to the  economy.

“Norway is a great market and can address a lot of challenges, so, it’s always easy for them to find new opportunities and obviously in Africa. Nigeria is one of the biggest markets in Africa and it’s going to continue growing so it’s important for companies to come and see what’s happening and find a niche.

‘’A lot of new sectors are opening in Nigeria from Norwegian companies from Information Communication Technology (ICT), renewables, aquaculture The Norwegian companies are more willing to come to West Africa to do business, find partners, she stated, adding its very important for them to have a clear vision of what the tax regulation is in Nigeria is all about.’’

She continued: “Business is growing and will still grow between Nigeria and Norway. We are in the oil and gas sector. We are also into aquaculture; aquaculture business has been on for over 200 years and still growing. Nigeria is still quite unknown from the European countries, so it’s a challenge for them to come here, it’s not emerging market but as soon as we conclude on this discussion they will always find businesses and this is the opportunity,” she said.

She admitted that it was a challenge coming to Nigeria but  that  they were determined to do business here. She observed that opportunities exist in the oil and gas, education, agriculture sectors.