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By Akeem Atoyebi
The Federal Government is working round the clock to come up with critical tax reforms not just to boost tax revenue and efficiency but also to meet the requirements for a $750m loan from the World Bank.
This loan project is a part of the broader $2.25bn approved by the World Bank for Nigeria on June 13, 2024, to boost Nigeria’s economic stability and support its vulnerable populations.
The other second part of the loan package was for the Nigeria Reforms for Economic Stabilisation to Enable Transformation, Development Policy Financing Programme project.
For the second loan, it was gathered that the Federal Government had obtained $751.88m out of the approved $1.5bn so far.
However, there has yet to be a disbursement for the first loan of $750m.
According to report disbursement for the first loan is tied to specific fiscal and governance conditions under the Accelerating Resource Mobilisation Reforms programme.
The ARMOR programme includes three main result areas: implementing tax and excise reforms to increase Value-Added Tax collections and excise rates on health and environmentally friendly products; strengthening tax and customs administrations to enhance VAT compliance and audit effectiveness; and safeguarding oil and gas revenues by increasing transparency and net revenue contributions.
