Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the presidential fiscal policy and tax reforms committee, has proposed that the federal government exempt vulnerable people from paying taxes.

Oyedele made this known while speaking on Politics Today on Channels TV on Friday.

“Sadly, the system we have today is trying to tax everything and everybody. You know, if it moves, tax it; if it moves again, tax it even more. That seems to be the approach we have today,” he said.

“You would imagine that those who are selling sachets of water, which we call pure water, how much possibly can be their capital plus profits.

“With all the hard work, people are just trying to see if they can find N800 or N1,000 a day to take care of themselves and their families, which would cover their transport or feeding.

“But when we were speaking to market traders associations, they told us that these guys are paying about six to seven different levies every single day, and they give them some form of sticker.

“And that clearly is not acceptable. We’ve also seen truckers who are moving produce, including food, from one state to another have to pay more than N450,000 in one single trip. Sometimes the stickers add up to more than 50.

“So at the end of the day, this is the reason why, for example, if you looked at the last inflation numbers, even just between rural areas and urban areas, the difference in inflation is about 500 basis points, which is about 5 percent, which you can only just explain by way of transportation but by the time you add the taxes to it.

“You see, that is one of the reasons why that differential is so significant.”

According to Oyedele, other decent societies have used these methods and it worked for them.

He said this approach would fight tax evasion and stop people from breaking the law.

“So we think that the approach to adopt is to exempt some of these vulnerable people, including [the sellers of] sachet pure water,” he said.

The tax expert also said the federal government need to stop asking people how much they earn to tax them.

“We also believe that we should stop asking people how much they earn so we can tax them, we should first support them to be able to grow and create wealth, and then use intelligence to tell them how much they have earned,” Oyedele said.

“So that way, we are sure that evasion and people who try to live above the law are a thing of the past. That’s how the decent society that we aspire to be like has been able to develop economics.”

Oyedele has been advocating for different tax reforms and relief for the informal sector.

In May, his committee announced that the federal government is working on a system that will provide tax relief to 95 percent of the informal sector.

Oyedele said the plan is to exempt businesses earning N25 million a year or less, from the various taxes hindering their progress over time.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued fresh guidelines on foreign currency deposits by deposit money banks (DMBs).

CBN made this known in a circular signed by Solaja Olayemi, its acting director of the currency operations department on Friday.

In the circular, the apex bank directed banks to transfer all excess foreign currency notes to its Lagos or Abuja branches.

The financial regulator said this is aimed at boosting liquidity in the foreign exchange market.

According to CBN, each bank would be allowed a maximum deposit of $10 million threshold for $100 notes and $50 notes daily.

“In order to deepen the foreign exchange market, boost liquidity and attain convergence in the exchange rates of the parallel and official markets, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has approved that DMBs may deposit their excess foreign currency notes with Lagos and Abuja branches of the Bank,” CBN said.

“The approval is a response to the increasing demand by DMBs to deposit their forex cash with CBN for onward credit to their off-shore accounts with the correspondent banks.”

‘3 WORKING DAYS NOTICE FOR INTENT TO DEPOSITS’

The financial regulator said the banks should adhere strictly to its guidelines such as giving three days notice showing intent to deposit foreign currencies.

“Give at least three (3) working days’ notice of their intent to deposit forex cash, in writing to the branch controller, CBN Lagos or/and Abuja. This must be accompanied by the list of owners of foreign currency to be deposited,” CBN said.

“All deposits must be within the threshold of the following per day: (i) USD higher bills ($100 and $50) maximum limit of $10 million. (ii) USD lower bills (20 and below) maximum limit of $1 million. (iii) GBP notes a maximum limit of £1 million. (iv) EURO notes – maximum limit of €1 million.

“Two (2) representatives of the depositing bank must be present to witness and confirm the amount to be deposited.

“Deposits may be in $100, $50, $20, $10, $5, $1 and all GBP and EURO denominations. Each denomination shall be in separate boxes.

“The DMBs shall engage the services of only CBN-registered CIT companies for deposits of foreign currency notes.

“The time for accepting deposits shall be between 8am and 12pm.”

CBN said Abuja and Lagos branches would receive, count and authenticate deposits in the presence of the representatives of the depositing bank on the same day.

“The bank shall credit the DMBs account through their correspondent bank within the cycle time of T+5.” the apex bank said.

“The handling charge of 0.30 per cent of the authenticated amount should be recovered from the DMB current account with CBN.

“The Bank would not accept forex deposits from any DMB that fails to comply with any of the guidelines.”

The Federal Government through the 3 Million Technical Talents (3MTT) program, has announced job opportunities for the 30,000 fellows that have graduated from cohort 1 of the program.

The program coordinators announced this on Thursday, asking the fellows to start applying. While the nature of the jobs was not disclosed, the coordinators said the fellows would see the jobs that are available locally and remotely once they log in to their dashboards.

“We are happy to announce that you can now explore job opportunities on the 3MTT Job Boards! These Job Boards are accessible to Fellows who have completed both online courses and ALC training. Sign up today and apply for roles both locally and remotely,” the announcement read.

While announcing the commencement of the second phase of the program in March, the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, said that the government was working to provide jobs for the cohort 1 fellows including placing them as interns with partnering companies.

“As we continue to interact, we are working with partners to ensure that those of them who want to go the route of entrepreneurship can be supported to kick off their small businesses to start their technology startups and hopefully help create the solutions to many of the problems that we face in the country that technology can help address,” the Minister added.

In addition, the Minister the government was also working on the possibility of providing unemployment benefits for Nigerians participating in the program.

Tijani said the idea of the unemployment benefits for participants was at the behest of President Bola Tinubu, who is deeply committed to the program. According to him, the 3MTT program is based on the President’s promise of creating 2 million digital jobs.

While noting that the country is now building the emerging talent for the workforce that the world requires to be able to power the application of technology, the Minister said:

“The President has been very clear; he has asked that we also look at the possibility of providing unemployment benefits to those who qualify within this program.
“As we continue to build out these opportunities, our goal is to support our people to ensure that we can give them the skill set that they require to participate in the global digital economy.

“We understand that as we empower them, we will end up strengthening our ability to defend our GDP as a country to defend the complexity of our economy as well as ensure that we continue to drive the growth that we want to see in our beloved country.”

According to Tijani, the 3MTT program is a critical part of the Renewed Hope agenda, and is aimed at building Nigeria’s technical talent backbone to power its digital economy and position Nigeria as a net talent exporter.

The program started with 30,000 Nigerians, representing 1% of the 3 million target, while the 270,000 selected for the second cohort brought the number to 10%.

To achieve the program’s target, Tijani said the different phases will be executed based on the framework co-created with key stakeholders across government agencies, training providers, educational institutions, development agencies, and the private sector.

Some of the skills Nigerians are being trained on include skills that utilize technology to enhance various roles without directly involving tech creation.

These include Digital Marketing, Project Management Software, Cloud Platforms Navigation, Data Analysis and Visualisation, Digital Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), CRM Management, Accounting Software, Graphics Design, and UX/UI Design, among several others.