American business magnate and billionaire, Bill Gates has advised the Federal Government of Nigeria to increase the tax and domestic revenue to about 15% of the Gross Domestic Product. The Microsoft founder explained that the country’s domestic revenue was quite small compared to other countries.
According to him, a lot of countries at that level would be rising closer to 15% of GDP but Nigeria, the most populous black nation, has one of the lowest in the world at about 6%.
He said, “It is a huge challenge that when you want to fund infrastructure, health, education, all those things, that over time the tax collection, the domestic resources are going to have to go up quite a bit.
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“That’s a long-term effort and I think partly by making sure the current resources are spent well like on primary health care, you gain the credibility that the citizens will say, okay, we want more of these things. If we don’t raise the quality, you can get into a trap where they don’t feel like paying the taxes actually has that much impact, and so they’re not supportive of that.”
The world’s second-richest billionaire also made known that if he had a wish for Nigeria, it would be that the quality and funding of the primary health care system would achieve the level of some other countries that are lower-income but have done a better job with the primary health care system.
“So, Nigeria is important, I’m hopeful about Nigeria. As you see in the report, the disparities within Nigeria are quite stark,” he added.
In order to combat most of the challenges the country is facing, the Microsoft co-founder said the Nigerian government needed to do more to gain the confidence of the people because the citizens could be discouraged from paying taxes if they see that taxes are not being properly utilized.
His words, “That’s a long-term effort and I think partly by making sure the current resources are spent well like on primary health care, you gain the credibility that the citizens will say, okay, we want more of these things. If we don’t raise the quality, you can get into a trap where they don’t feel like paying the taxes actually has that much impact, and so they’re not supportive of that.”
Samson Oyedeyi
