Billionaire businessman who is representing Ondo South Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, has urged President Bola Tinubu to create the Ministry of Revenue.
He said the proposed Ministry, when created, would serve as the coordinating platform for all the revenue generating agencies and government owned enterprises.
The development, he added, would enhance a drastic improvement in the nation’s internally generated revenues.
Ibrahim, according to a statement he personally signed on Sunday, made the suggestion when he visited the president last week on a courtesy visit.
The envisioned ministry, according to him, was indispensable for the nation to wangle its way out of the current socio-economic quagmire.
Part of his statement read, “There are many revenue generating agencies in Nigeria today without a coordinating body or platform.
“The Ministry of Finance is not giving the required mobilisation and coordination in this regard, hence the need for Ministry of Revenue.
“Analogically, in Nigeria over the years, we have the Ministry of Finance more or less playing the role of Bursar disbursing all the monies remitted into national coffers by generating agencies.
“There is no treasurer to keep proper records of revenues generated by the various agencies and give them the required impetus to generate more.
“Nigeria definitely needs a national treasurer to be symbolised by the Federal Ministry of Revenue when created,” he stated.
He said Tinubu, during his engagement with him, also saw the need for it in line with his pedigree on improved revenue generation.
He added that the Ministry of Revenue when created , would serve as one of the strategies through which the nation’s debt could be defrayed by serving as window for improved revenue generation to fast-track the nation’s development.
“The nation’s debts of N77 trillion shouldn’t be a cause for worry considering the current debt to Gross Domestic Product ratio of less than 31 per cent and required innovative ideas of defraying it,” he added .
Sunday Aborisade in Abuja
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