BY AMOBI JEWEL—-The NIgeria government on Friday said the country’s tax revenue grew by 51 per cent in 2017.
Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo disclosed this at the FT Nigeria Summit on “Dispelling Uncertainty and Building Resilience’’ in Lagos.
He said that the 51 per cent growth year- on-year was due to aggressive tax policies introduced by the Federal Government.
Speaking on “Nigeria beyond oil- The pathway to transformation’’, Osinbajo said that the Federal Government had diversified the economy to ensure proper growth and development.
“Aside from oil, tax revenues have gone up by 51 per cent in 2017. We are recording high tax revenue in the history of the country,’’ he said.
Osinbajo said that tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would be above six per cent it used to be, going by growth recorded in tax revenue.
On external debt, he said Nigerians current debt profile was still small and nothing to worry about when compared to GDP.
HE further said that the country’s debt to GDP was 21 per cent, compared with Ghana that was around 70 per cent and South Africa 50 per cent, USA 101 per cent.
While noting that the country’s debt to revenue as at Nov. 2017 was 34 per cent down from about 60 per cent in the past.
