The Special Adviser to the President Bola Tinubu on Revenue, Mr. Zacch Adedeji says the Federal Government will ensure that every kobo of the nation’s revenue counts.
He made this disclosure in Abuja at a sensitisation workshop on the published “Guidelines for Private Sector Response to Illicit Financial Flow (IFF) Vulnerabilities in Nigeria” organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
Mr. Adedeji said that the President Bola Tinubu believed in fiscal discipline and would ensure judicious utilisation of the country’s revenue and resources.
Earlier in his keynote address at the sensitisation workshop, the Special Adviser pledged that the government would strengthen the country’s fight against illicit financial flows (IFFs).
Mr. Adedeji explained that the IFFs had significantly eroded domestic revenues and hampered government’s efforts to mobilize resources, thereby threatening economic stability and sustainable development.
The Special Adviser commended the Chairman of the ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, for the successes so far recorded by the anti-corruption agency in the fight against IFFs.
He added that the published guidelines will set a new trajectory in the fight against IFFs in the Private Sector, thereby putting Nigeria at the forefront of African countries to achieve this great feat.
In an address of welcome, the ICPC Chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye said that Illicit Financial Flows was a drain on Nigeria’s potential revenue accretion and foreign exchange reserves.
This, according to him, has resulted in exchange rate depreciation, inflation and increase in cost of servicing external debts in addition to negative impact on the cost of imported goods like petroleum with its attendant radical consequences on daily livelihood experience of ordinary citizens.
He gave assurance that the commission would continue to focus on practical measures to enhance Nigeria’s ability to stem IFFs, reduce capital flight and enhance the country’s capacity for domestic resource mobilisation.
Reporting by Biodun Dare; Editing by Adeniyi Bakare