By Florence Israel, Abuja
These Community Tax Liaison Officers are expected to increase tax awareness to raise compliance, educate all citizens on the tax system, tax outreach to increase the number of tax payers and to enroll new tax payers but they are not expected to assess people for tax purposes or collect taxes on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is set to recruit not less than 7,500 young Nigerian graduates, who are to serve as Community Tax Liaison Officers (CTLOs) through the ongoing Federal Government’s N-Power program.
At a briefing held at the main auditorium of the Federal Ministry of Finance on Thursday afternoon by the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun and the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, it was revealed that the young graduates to be engaged would be trained and deployed to communities and that their main duties would be to raise awareness and educate citizens on the tax system in Nigeria.
With a tax to GDP ratio of only six percent, one of the lowest in the world and 14 million tax payers out of 69.6 million economically active people (20 percent), the Minister explained that there was a lot of work to be done in creating awareness and bringing people into the tax system.
“As a result, about 7,500 CTLOs will be recruited through the N-Power Program to tackle this challenge and they will be deployed nationwide and will be found in public places within every community. They will be found in markets, schools, churches, mosques, airports, etc and will have distinctive uniforms with logos clearly showing that they are part of the tax awareness program thereby making it easier for them to be identified,” Adeosun described the CTLOs.
She further explained that all the CTLOs would undergo intensive training comprising of classroom learning, case studies, role play and on the field learning, adding that, “Their training is comprehensive and covers the tax system, sales, marketing and customer services.”
These Community Tax Liaison Officers are expected to increase tax awareness to raise compliance, educate all citizens on the tax system, tax outreach to increase the number of tax payers and to enroll new tax payers but they are not expected to assess people for tax purposes or collect taxes on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Young Nigerian graduates are also encouraged to apply for these vacancies through the N-Power website under the tab, “N-Power Tax” as there are lots of benefits.
