The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, disclosed this during a media briefing on Thursday in Abuja on a new initiative to drive tax revenue.
Adeosun was accompanied to the briefing by the Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mr. Babatunde Fowler, and other top officials in the ministry.
Specifically, she said the Federal Government was planning to achieve the objective by recruiting 7,500 graduates as community tax liaison officers to raise the level of tax awareness in the country.
She said the graduates would be recruited under the N-Power programme of the Federal Government for a two-year period, adding that graduates with accounting, economics and similar backgrounds would be given priority during the recruitment process.
The minister stated that the major responsibilities of those employed under the programme would be to enlighten people in public places such as markets, schools, religious centres, offices and recreational centres, among others, on the need to pay taxes.
Adeosun said, “We will be recruiting them through N-Power and they can apply through the website of the Federal Ministry of Finance or through the N-Power website. It’s a two year fixed contract and they will be deployed in states and attached to states’ internal revenue service or the FIRS. “Their job is to improve the level of education on Nigeria’s tax system. Our tax system is progressive, meaning those who earn less should pay less, and those who earn more should pay more. “A lot of people don’t know that. So it’s a chance to get people on ground to answer all these pertinent questions.” She encouraged intelligent graduates interested in pursuing a career in tax administration to apply as the government planned to sponsor the recruits to become tax professionals.
