JTB Applauds NGF’s IGR Drive for States

By Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The Executive Secretary, Joint Tax Board (JTB), Oseni Elamah has hailed the Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat contributions to the reinvention of tax administration in the country.

He extolled the NGF on its role in spearheading enhanced revenue generation among states in the country at a two-day training on human resource management for states internal revenue services held at the Forum’s secretariat in Abuja recently.

“I appreciate the NGF for ensuring the attainment of the lofty ideals of enhanced revenue generation in the country, especially given the need for states to explore alternative sources of funding under the reality of dwindling federal allocations.

“It was without much resistance that during the 137th meeting of the Board in 2017, the NGF was admitted into the Board, having an observer status,” Elamah said.

He further acknowledged the role of the forum in reinventing itself to evolve services that would adequately and comprehensively re-position the respective revenue authorities in the country.

He stressed that a number of initiatives and programmes had been designed and geared towards not only building capacity for professional and quality service delivery, but re-engineering the operational processes and institutional framework that would bring about a more sustainable outcome for enhanced growth in IGR.

“It is heartening to note that the NGF has been reinforcing the role of the JTB in this regard via the implementation of the States Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) Reform Initiative, an initiative that has as its primary objective, the constructive engagement of the State Chief Executives of selected states currently constrained in optimising their revenue generation and administration capacity is just one of such collaborations,” Elamah concluded.

Earlier, while declaring the event open, the Director-General of the NGF, Mr. Asishana Okauru, urged the participants to take advantage of the offerings of the workshop to hone their skills.

Participants at the event which takes care of the north central zone were from Nasarawa, Kwara, Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Benue and the FCT.

Sekibo: Heritage Bank Supporting Next Titans to Encourage Entrepreneurs

Heritage Bank said its sponsorship of Nigeria’s entrepreneurial reality show, “The Next Titan’s,” was driven by its faith in the ability and willingness of young entrepreneur’s ability to contribute to Nigeria’s economic growth.

Managing Director of Heritage Bank, Mr Ifie Sekibo, disclosed this while receiving a group of ‘Next Titan’  contestants on a courtesy visit to  bank’s  head office in Lagos, stressing that the bank  has a strongly desire to see young men and women succeed in other areas other than what they study in school.

The Next Titan is an entrepreneurial reality show headlined by Heritage Bank. It features   a 10-week entrepreneurial reality TV show geared at igniting the entrepreneurial spirit of young Nigerians, which gives opportunity to young aspiring entrepreneurs to battle against one another for a grand prize of N5 million and a car to the winner.

Sekibo said: “I am particularly impressed by what I have seen and what touched me most is the diversity in your areas of competence.

“But the intriguing part is that many of you are not actually doing what you studied in the university. For the fact that most of you are doing something different from what you study gives me hope for this country.

“It gives me hope to the extent that it shows it is not about what you study but about your passion. Your desire to succeed gives me hope for this country.

“One of the reasons why we chose as an organisation to support ‘The Next Titan’s’ is to see young men and women venture away from their seeming comfort zone after  five years of a particular study at the university. “You abandon what you study and check what humanity needs and try to cover that gap for humanity by being the best in that field”, he stated.

Speaking further, he said: “In succeeding, one needs to dare in life and some of us have dared in the past, so it is left for the youths to dare as well.

“One of the things I want to advise is not just getting to the Next Titan show, it is about what you can achieve because from what I have seen, there are huge opportunities, huge potentials in each of the contestants but you must all come together with your ideas if you want to change the world”. 

 “I do not believe this is just any reality show, you must bear in mind that there is competition and there is cooperation. I want you to compete healthy, effectively because unhealthy rivalry will only kill your dreams.”

Speaking on the rationale behind the establishment of Heritage Bank, Sekibo said, “If you know the history of this bank, then you will understand where I am coming from.

“We bought a bank that was dead for 10 years; I can tell you that no bank anywhere in the world dies for 10 years and came back alive. Our dream was not limited to resuscitating the bank, but what is the future of the people whose monies were tied down for 10 years and could not get their monies.”