Margaret Umoren

The Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Finance, Mr Emem Bob has made advocacy for improved revenue by Federal Government agencies.

Mr Bob who is a discussant at the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC 2025 Retreat holding in Uyo acknowledged the relevance of the Federal Ministry of Finance in the actualisation of the national budget.

The Finance expert however noted that as a revenue generating organ, the Ministry is faced by a plethora of challenges.

He enumerated the challenges to include difficulty in oil price projection, tax evasion by citizens and corporate bodies, poor revenue administration and leakages of revenue.

Mr Bob therefore advocated for a monitoring mechanism by the Ministry of Finance to ensure that all generated revenues are remitted to government coffers.

He added that there is need to adopt digital tax system that can track tax evaders as well as apply  Information Technology to harness revenue generation.

The Commissioner emphasised on the need to diversify revenue sources from oil to other sectors like agriculture, technology, manufacturing and mining.

He noted that it is important to beam the searchlight on the mining sector for full disclosure of revenue from the sector to the federation account.

Mr Bob further proposed the strengthening of Inter-agency collaboration and improved coordination among federal government agencies responsible for the collection of taxes.

The Finance boss opined that it is necessary to institutionalise a reward system for exceeding targets and enforcing compliance.

He said if these fiscal reforms are implemented by the Federal Ministry of Finance, increase in revenue is assured.