Ahead of composition of his cabinet, President Bola Tinubu has been advised to create the Ministry of Revenue.
In a statement on Sunday, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim (APC Ondo South) explained the urgent need for the ministry to serve as a coordinating platform for all revenue-generating agencies.
According to the first-term lawmaker, such ministry was indispensable for the nation to wangle its way out of the current socio-economic quagmire.
Ibrahim said: “There are many revenue-generating agencies in Nigeria today without a coordinating body or platform.
“The Ministry of Finance is not giving the required mobilisation and coordination in this regard, hence, the need for the Ministry of Revenue.
“Analogically, in Nigeria over the years, we have the Ministry of Finance more or less playing the role of Bursar disbursing all the monies remitted into national coffers by generating agencies but there is no Treasurer to keep proper records of revenues generated by the various affected agencies and give them the required impetus to generate more.
“Nigeria definitely needs a national treasurer to be symbolised by the Federal Ministry of Revenue when created”.
He added that the idea has been sold to President Tinubu who, according to him, saw the need for it in line with his pedigree on improved revenue generation.
The senator further said that the Ministry of Revenue would serve as one of the strategies through which the nation’s debt could be defrayed by serving as a window for improved revenue generation to fast-track the nation’s development.
“The nation’s debts of N77 trillion shouldn’t be a cause for worry considering the current debt to Gross Domestic Product ratio of less than 31 per cent and required innovative ideas of defraying it”, he added.
