FG plans emergency economic bill to boost non-oil revenue

The Federal Government has disclosed plans to introduce an emergency economic bill to boosts its revenue from the non-oil sector in Nigeria.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun revealed this during his presentation at the Lagos Business School (LBS) Breakfast Club on Monday.

According to the minister, the federal government is ,finalizing an Emergency Economic Bill which will, in part, enhance non-oil revenue.”

More specifically, the new bill will “expand tax base, improve compliance, automate excise tax; review tax exemptions and duty waivers (1% of GDP); and recalibrate incentive structure e.g. post-ante.”

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He added that the country’s non-oil assets, estimated to be between N80 trillion and N100 trillion, are yet to get sufficient attention and are also being mismanaged.

The non-oil sector contributed around 95.30% to Nigeria’s GDP in the last three months of 2023, according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics 2023 fourth quarter GDP report. This percentage is below the 95.66% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022, yet it surpasses the 94.52% noted in the third quarter of 2023.  In the quarter under review, the non-oil sector experienced a growth of 3.07% in real terms.

This growth rate was 1.37% points lower than that observed in the same quarter of 2022, but it was 0.32% points higher than the growth seen in the third quarter of 2023.

The growth of the non-oil sector in the fourth quarter of 2023 was primarily fuelled by key industries such as financial and insurance (Financial Institutions); information and communication (telecommunication); agriculture (crop production); trade; construction; manufacturing (food, beverage, and tobacco); and real estate.