The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) on Tuesday called for the collaboration of multinational stakeholders toward the development of Nigeria’s digital economy.
The Director-General, of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, made the call at the 2023 NITDA/FIRS Stakeholders Engagements Forum, in Lagos.
Inuwa said that the multi-stakeholders support was crucial to NITDA in promoting and supporting an enabling environment for Nigeria to develop, create and capture value from the digital economy.
‘’So, looking at the ecosystem, we believe that we cannot succeed in isolation, the ecosystem has five critical stakeholders with you as the most critical stakeholder.
‘’NITDA is committed to embracing emerging technologies, developing policies and creating an enabling environment for startups and entrepreneurs to survive.
‘We believe that with you all we can build a more prosperous Nigeria, a country that is at the forefront of Africa’s digital economy and a nation that can compete globally.
‘’We believe in teamwork, and together nothing is impossible, we work together and create a prosperous ecosystem for all,’’ he said.
Inuwa while appealing for collaboration, highlighted the benefits of building a global talent factory, completing the secretariat for the implementation of the startup Act, and achieving 98 per cent digital literacy by 3030 among others.
According to him, all this will not be possible without the stakeholders, as there is a need for their support to complete the secretariat in March and implement the startup act into law, which will help to have more forecast inflow into the country.
The Executive Chairman, of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Muhammed Nami, said that NITDA is funded through amongst other things the payment of a levy of one per cent of profit before tax of companies and enterprises among others.
Nami, who was represented by Mr Kabir Abba, Group lead General Tax, Operation Group, said that FIRS is a key partner of NITDA.
According to him, we assist in the assessment, collection and accounting for their revenue, as stated in Section 16 of the NITDA Act (2007).
“In 2022, FIRS collected and remitted the sum of N22,574,099,600.06 and the total sum collected by FIRS on behalf of the agency from 2008 to December 2022 is N168,847, 118, 268.22,” he said.
Nami said more importantly, FIRS had been able to deploy technology to ease the burden of compliance to the taxpayers.
He said that it leveraged this legislation to deploy technology for taxpayers’ compliance and reduce the cost of compliance on the part of the taxpayers.
The executive chairman, however, assured that the FIRS would continue to support NITDA to achieve its mandate of implementing National Information Technology policies, and developing and regulating Information Technology for sustainable development.
“As well as being the prime catalyst for transforming Nigeria into an IT-driven economy. This support is important as Information Technology plays a vital role in the operations of the Service and in ensuring increased revenue for the nation,” he said.
