BusinessDay 27 Mar 2018

6 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556
NEWS
LUC: Lagos seen facing hurdles executing 2018 budget
JOSHUA BASSEY
Lagos State government
is seen travelling
a rough road
in the implementation
of the 2018
budget following a groundswelling
opposition to its
Land Use Charge (LUC) increases
from where it hoped
to partly fund its biggest ever
budget of N1.04 trillion.
The state had been forced
to slash the charges by between
15 and 50 percent. And
against the continuing agitation
by stakeholders - Nigeria
Bar Association (NBA), Organised
Private Sector (OPS),
investors in real estates, landlord
and residents, among
others, to either suspend the
implementation of the law or
further review the rates, the
Lagos State House of Assembly
is today organising a public
hearing to receive further
inputs by Lagosians.
Officials of the state were
not explicit yesterday, when
contacted on the percentage
contribution of the new
FITC engages HR managers on workplace diversity
The Financial Institutions
Training Centre
(FITC) has engaged
Human Resources
(HR) managers to enlighten
them on the need to promote
diversity in the workplace.
Lucy Newman, FITC managing
director/CEO, says in
Lagos that the 2018 FITC Focus
Group Discussion with
the heads of Human Resources
and heads of Learning in
the FITC was meant to deepen
the knowledge of human
resource managers on human
relations in workplace,
and creates the environment
that allows every individual
contribute meaningfully to
the company’s growth.
According to Newman,
FITC is a special purposedriven
organisation with a
mandate to continually build
capacity and advocate for best
LUC to the state’s 2018 revenue
projection of N897
billion. However, the projected
monthly Internally
Generated Revenue (IGR),
which comprised taxes majorly
inclusive of the LUC,
is put at about N50 billion,
up from between N25 and
N30 billion in 2017. Over
the last 10 years, Lagos had
depended more on IGR to
finance its budgets up to
about 70 percent.
To drive the implementation
of the 2018 budget, the
state targeted an approximately
N720.123 billion IGR,
which represents about 80
percent of the N897 billion
total revenue the projects to
earn in 2018.
Of the N720.123 billion
IGR, the Lagos Internal
Revenue Service (LIRS)
alone was projected to net
N440.121 billion, which is
equivalent to 61 percent of
the total IGR.
As part of the strategies to
actualise the projections, the
practices in the financial services
sector and economy at
large.
“One of our main objectives
is to promote and advance
the knowledge and
practice of banking and
finance in Nigeria and Africa
sub-region, as may be required.
To effectively execute
this role in a collaborative and
value adding manner, FITC
periodically organises the Focus
Group sessions to share
and aspire for improvements
to respective organisations
represented and FITC’s customised
services,” she says.
The event holds annually
to review feedback on services,
improvement areas and
any new skills for the attention
of the associates.
“In 2012, in furtherance of
an aspiration to share emerging
knowledge and co-design
services, we added the edition
with Heads of HR & Heads of
government set out to improve
state’s revenue-to-GDP
ratio from 2.18 percent level
in 2017 to about 5 percent
or more in 2018, by bringing
more people into the tax net
and promoting improved filing
of returns and self-assessments
by taxpayers as well as
driving fiscalisation of consumption
taxes.
Akinyemi Ashade, commissioner
for finance, had
said that government expenditure
would be largely
driven through proceeds
from enhanced revenues.
“The Enhanced Revenue
Reform (ERF) will focus on
fiscalisation of consumption
taxes, improved enumeration
and collection of
land use charges, improved
administration of motor
vehicle administration
laws and expansion of activities
of Ministry of Physical
Planning and Urban
Development and related
land agencies towards ensuring
that all trapped rev-
Learning, with a knowledge
sharing insert. This year, we
are extending the conversation
by discussing the topic
Managing Diversity in the
21st Century Workplace,” she
says.
Speaking further, she
notes that FITC has over the
years executed several initiatives
to remain relevant to its
stakeholders and meet the
dynamic needs of the various
industries within the sector.
“In furtherance to FITC’s
role as defined in the Competency
Management Framework
for Banks, FITC has
had the Competency Based
Trainings available from 2015
to date. In 2017, FITC signed
an exclusivity agreement with
the Finance Accreditation
Agency to deliver the Certified
Training Professional
programme in Nigeria and
commenced the certification
process of 15 of its courses.
enues are released to the
coffers of the state government,”
Ashade said.
According to Ashade,
the state’s initiatives under
the ERF were being supported
by relevant enactment
and re-enactment
of laws and regulations by
the House of Assembly, of
which the LUC was part.
Ashade said the reforms
in the LIRS and the opportunities
provided by Voluntary
Assets and Income Declaration
scheme (VAIDS) in
conjunction with the Federal
Government agencies
would deepen the tax base
and widen tax net from 5
million (in 2017) to about 8
million people this year.
“Our monthly IGR target
in 2018 is N50 billion, and we
consider this very conservative
because our revenue
to GDP ratio is still about 3
percent, which means there
are huge opportunities for
growth under the reforms for
revenue enhancement.
L-R: Simon Lalung, governor, Plateau State; Dave Umeahi, governor, Ebonyi State; Atiku Bagudu, governor, Kebbi State;
Akinwunmi Ambode, governor, Lagos State, and Ifeanyi Okowa, governor, Delta State, during the inauguration of National Food
Security Council at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE
… may miss IGR target of N720bn
Tuesday 27 March 2018
Zuma gets court summons
over corruption allegations
Obaseki urges tougher measures against slavery
Governor of Edo
State, Godwin
Obaseki, has urged
world leaders to
strengthen existing laws and
policies against all forms of
slavery, to uphold the dignity
of the human being.
Obaseki made the call in
commemoration of the United
Nations International Day
of Remembrance of the Victims
of Slavery and the Transatlantic
Slave Trade, marked
on March 25 each year.
The governor decried the
reappearance of slavery in
Libya and other parts of the
world, several decades after
it was abolished, and hailed
the efforts of the Benin Monarch,
His Royal Majesty, Omo
N’ Oba N’Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo,
Ewuare II, at bringing an
end to human trafficking in
the state.
“Since the intervention
by Oba Ewuare II, we have
… Angola charges son of former leader
It was bad news yesterday
for two former
African leaders beginning
with the former
South African president
Jacob Zuma who was formally
charged for corruption
and ordered to appear
before a Duban court on
April 6.
In Luanda, the son
of former president José
Eduardo dos Santos was
charged over allegations
that he was involved in a
$500m fraud while head of
the oil-rich southern African
country’s sovereign
wealth fund, state radio reported.
Zuma’s lawyer confirmed
that he was served
with official notice Monday
and he is facing 16 charges
of corruption, fraud, and
other offences relating to
alleged bribery in a decades-old
arms deal.
South Africa’s national
prosecuting authority said
this month that it would
finally pursue a long-delayed
prosecution of Mr
Zuma over the charges —
compounding his humiliation
after the ruling African
National Congress forced
him to resign as president
in February.
Zuma was succeeded
as president by Cyril
Ramaphosa, the ANC leader,
who has pledged to fight
corruption that flourished
under his predecessor and
has moved swiftly to remove
a number of the former
president’s allies from
government.
José Filomeno dos Santos
was removed as head
of the $5bn wealth fund by
his father’s successor, João
Lourenço, in January. Angola’s
attorney-general said
received positive feedbacks
from the camps of the human
traffickers in Europe and
other parts of the world. They
have been rattled and many
of them have given up the
inhuman trade for decent lifestyles,
knowing the weight of
the royal pronouncements,”
the governor said.
The governor assured that
“with the extensive and speedy
work that have been done by
the Edo State House of Assembly
on the ‘Bill to Prohibit
Trafficking in Persons and Establish
the Edo State Taskforce
Against Trafficking in Persons,’
the stage is set for an all out war
against human traffickers and
their collaborators.”
He said the Bill, when
signed into law, would
strengthen existing Federal
Government laws and agencies
in tackling human trafficking.
Obaseki noted that
the United Nations Internaon
Monday that the younger
Mr dos Santos was also
being barred from leaving
the country in connection
with the probe into claims
that funds were transferred
abroad from an account at
the central bank.
The former governor of
the National Bank of Angola
has also been charged
over the alleged transfer,
state radio added. Maka
Angola, a site run by Rafael
Marques de Morais, an Angolan
investigative journalist,
reported in January that
the alleged transfer took
place as part of a scheme
involving an offer to lend
money to the Angolan
government that was later
found to be fictitious.
As president, the older
Mr dos Santos appointed
his children to key economic
positions, including
naming his daughter, Isabel,
chief executive of the
state oil company, before
stepping down from nearly
four decades in power in
elections last year.
Mr Lourenço has reversed
the appointments
amid signs of a power struggle
within the ruling MPLA,
which has governed Angola
since independence. Mr
dos Santos, who remains
the head of the MPLA, indicated
this month that
he would delay his departure
as its chief. Before the
younger Mr dos Santos’
dismissal from the wealth
fund, civil society activists
accused him of cronyism in
picking a Swiss investment
firm run by an associate,
Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais,
to manage its assets.
Mr dos Santos and Mr Bastos
de Morais have denied
the claims.
tional Day of Remembrance
of the Victims of Slavery and
the Transatlantic Slave Trade,
should remind everyone of
the millions of lives that were
lost; namely women, children
and young men.
“We must never go that route
again. In Edo State, we have lost
thousands of our young men
and women to illegal migration
and human trafficking and this
is unacceptable.
“My administration is
committed to a new order
that will engage our productive
youths in dignifying and
rewarding economic ventures
that earn them decent
wages,” he added.
According to the United
Nations, “for over 400 years,
more than 15 million men,
women and children were
the victims of the tragic
transatlantic slave trade, one
of the darkest chapters in
human history.