Nigeria lost N5trn to tax holidays granted 34 companies – Report

The Oxfam in Nigeria, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and Connected Development (CODE) have said that Nigeria lost approximately N5trn to tax holidays granted 34 companies by the federal government.

They said this on Monday in Abuja at the formal presentation of 70-page ‘Inequality Inc. Rebuilding Trust: How corporate power divides our world and the need for a new era of public action’.

Their call is coming as business elites gather in the Switzerland resort town of Davos, where activists are protesting for more corporate taxes on seven out of ten of the world’s biggest corporations, some with significant presence in Africa, have a billionaire as CEO or principal shareholder, with these corporations worth $10.2trn, equivalent to nearly four times the combined GDPs of all African countries.

The acting Country Director of Oxfam in Nigeria, Tijani Ahmed Hamza; CISLAC Executive Director, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, CODE Chief Executive, Hamzat Lawal; and BudgIT Foundation Stakeholder Manager, Andrew Oaikhena at the event urged the federal government to tax wealth and not the poor masses.

The Oxfam in Nigeria boss noted that in December 2023, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) said it approved tax holidays for 34 companies seeking tax incentives and waivers under the Industrial Development Income Tax Act of 2023.

He also said that the NIPC listed the beneficiaries to include Dangote, Sino Trucks West Africa Limited, Lafarge Africa Plc, Honeywell Flour Mills Nigeria Plc, Jigawa Rice Limited and Stallion Motors Limited among others.

“Note that these companies enjoy these tax breaks under the pioneer status regime in a bid to incentivise and stimulate those companies in a three to five years arrangement of not paying corporate income taxes, which has over the years culminated to about five trillion naira, an 18.519% of the 2024 Federal Government of Nigeria’s budget as passed into law.

The coalition in their recommendations urged that an administrative suspension be placed on the processing of Pioneer Status Incentive (PSI) applications under the purview of the NIPC to allow for a comprehensive review and reform of the incentive regime.