Senate okays Mr Zack Adedeji as FIRS chair

The Senate on Tuesday approved the nomination of Mr Zack Adedeji as the chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

A decision by the majority of the senators to confirm Adedeji after he was screened during the plenary session on Tuesday saw the president’s nominee getting their affirmation

Speaking before his confirmation, Adedeji promised to improve the data mining capacity of the agency to make appropriate tax decisions.

He attributed revenue leakages to lack of data on the finances of local and foreign firms operating in the country.
He claimed data will provide adequate information on the precise number of vessels carrying oil coming into the country.

He said, “What we need is data on the total leverage. We need to develop the data so that it can be used to identify those in affluence who pay insufficient tax.

“We will improve our data mining capacity, and we will centralise the identification system in Nigeria using the NIN so that when we run the report, we can now ask questions where necessary. “We will make good use of data,” he added.

He also pledged to look into the federal government tax credit scheme, which grants some corporations tax holidays in exchange for the provision of infrastructure.

The screening and confirmation was conducted during Tuesday’s plenary, two weeks after President Bola Tinubu appointed his former Special Adviser on Revenue, Adedeji, as the new FIRS Chair

Shortly after the nominess presentation, Senator Adams Oshiomhole (APC, Edo North), in supporting the nomination of Zach Adedeji, raised an area of concern in the nominees curriculum Vitae

He said, “What is not captured in his cv is character, patriotism, and commitment that as a young person, he can do better than the elderly ones.

“I also want to commend the president for nominating young people under his administration.”

The Chief Whip of the Senate, Ali Ndume (APC, Borno South) also raised concerns on the issues around taxation and urged Zach to inform the Senators on how he intends to address it in the country.

“Tax is the major source of revenue generation. Now, Nigeria depends on taxes, just like the property and communication service tax.”