NEITI, OrderPaper, Experts Brainstorm on FG’s New Tax Reform Bills

•Urge Nigerians to show more interest in planned fiscal changes

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), OrderPaper and subject matter experts yesterday held a conversation on the current tax reform bills before the National Assembly, agreeing that it was important that ordinary citizens are at the heart of the reforms.

The online event in Abuja organised by OrderPaper, Nigeria, an independent parliamentary monitoring organisation and policy think tank, was themed: “Tax Bills and the Implications for NEITI Audits”.

Speaking at the event, Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr Ogbonnaya Orji, stated that the series was conceived as a platform to facilitate meaningful engagements on resource governance, fiscal transparency, and accountability in Nigeria’s extractive sector.

He noted that the meeting was both timely and crucial as Nigeria advances comprehensive tax reforms aimed at strengthening revenue mobilisation and ensuring fiscal sustainability.

On why the virtual gathering was important, Orji stated that the extractive sector remains the backbone of Nigeria’s economy, accounting for a substantial share of government revenue and foreign exchange earnings.

However, he stressed that persistent challenges—such as tax evasion, revenue leakages, weak enforcement, and a lack of transparency in fiscal regimes—had continued to undermine the sector’s potential to drive sustainable development.

Orji posited that the 2024 tax reform bills, currently under legislative review, represent a bold effort to modernise Nigeria’s tax system, explaining that NEITI had carefully examined the bill and acknowledged its potential to improve tax administration.

In addition, he observed that it will help streamline legal frameworks, and enhance compliance across various industries, including oil, gas, and mining.

He reiterated NEITI’s commitment to supporting the legislative process by providing technical inputs, data-driven insights, and policy recommendations to ensure that the 2024 tax reform bills strengthen fiscal transparency, enhance accountability, and maximise resource benefits for all Nigerians.

In his intervention, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer, OrderPaper, Oke Epia, who lauded the turnout of participants, expressed OrderPaper’s  delight to work with NEITI on the series to untangle the knotty issues in the bills.

Urging Nigerians to show a lot more interest in the tax reforms, he noted that it was important that the bills before the National Assembly should be discussed so as to ensure transparency.

“This is to enable stakeholders’ participation especially the citizens, and trying to expand the scope of the conversation around resource governance, especially as it concerns the EITI standards, energy transition, climate change, beneficial ownership and the social dimension of resource governance within the host communities as well as contract transparency,” he added.

He opined that the reforms will have far reaching effects on the economy of the country, stressing that it behoves on all Nigerians to show more interest in these issues, whether as experts or ordinary citizens.

In his remarks, member Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policies and Tax Reforms, Haruna Yahaya, noted that the tax bills aim to address revenue leakages in the oil, gas and minerals sector through several key reforms.

“The first is harmonisation of taxes. Nigeria’s tax bills seek to integrate all tax laws into single and simplified legislation, thereby reducing complexity and potential loopholes for revenue leakage.

“Two is centralised tax collection. The Nigerian tax bill vests the Nigerian revenue service with the power to collect all taxes, including royalties that was previously collected by the Nigerian Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC). Thirdly, it enhances transparency.

“The reform promotes transparency in tax payments and receipts, making it easier to track and prevent revenue leakages. Number four, revised excise duty framework. The proposed bill seeks to broaden the excise duty, including postpaid and prepaid telecoms and so on.

“ So, all these reforms are aimed to improve the revenue collections, reduce revenue leakages, and promote transparency in extractive industries. As explained by the other speakers, the law is not saying that the customs should be phased out. It is that they should concentrate on their core mandates,” he argued.

In his intervention, Policy Expert on Natural Resource Governance, Dr Mike Uzoigwe, said that Nigeria needs to mobilise as much revenue as possible, given the economic situation that the country is in, reason the reform is necessary.

“So what we should be talking about now is, are we conducting the right stakeholder engagements that should enable the passage or assent? Are we considering all the effects that it will have on the various categories of citizens, businesses, individuals, and so on?  So this is why I think that the conversation we’re having today is really very important,” he added.