Legal luminary, Olisa Agbakoba, has listed sources Nigeria must harness to boost its revenue generation.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) gave the counsel in a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a copy made available to DAILY POST, Agbakoba applauded the early release of budget 2021, adding that it signaled concern to reflate the economy.
Noting that budget’s fiscal and monetary policy is broadly harmonized, the lawyer said he wished that fiscal policy was more expansionary.
He observed the deficit of about N7trillion, as well as the challenge on how to raise revenue.
Agbakoba said the first area that can generate huge revenue is the Apapa Port.
He cited a recent report by a Dutch consultancy firm, Dynanmar which showed that Nigeria loses N20billion daily and N7.2trillion annually.
The legal practitioner said the second area that can generate substantial income is trade facilitation.
“Trade is Nigeria’s second-largest contributor to GDP but it is shocking that Nigeria lacks the critical and essential tools of trade facilitation which are vessels and airlines. So legislation is proposed to introduce the Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL) and Air Nigeria.
“If our local content policy and laws are implemented in terms of trade facilitation, Nigeria can generate over N20trillion and 10 million jobs in 5 years.”
Agbakoba listed the third area as land administration.
He quoted a recent study which revealed that the housing inventory of Nigerian property probably exceeds $7trillion.
“But most of this is dead capital that cannot be used as collateral for financial transactions because they are not properly titled. Creating an efficient titling system by introducing a Land Use Administration Act will release a lot of revenue into the system.”
He told Buhari that if properly done, estimates suggest it can generate N30trillion over 5 years.
“With concerted deep study, it is possible to hit the N100trillion mark”, Agbakoba predicted.
The SAN urged the federal government to explore new sources of revenue to close the budget deficit and grow the economy by enacting the Strategic Revenue Growth and Recovery Act.
